If Audi Is Planning On Global Domination, Why Do They Not Have A RS8 In The Works?

Audi doesn't have an RS8 in the works because the few sales of such a model are not worth creating a whole new engine or borrowing one from the huge stable of Volkswagen Auto Group brands (Bentley's Continental GT Speed 600+ horsepower engine would be ideal).

Mercedes-Benz sells very few S63 and S65 AMG Sedans when compared to the total number of S-classes sold globally.

Audi's time and effort is better spend building an A9 "flagship coupe" to take on the Mercedes-Benz S-class Coupe (formerly CL).

The S8 is already plenty fast and it's a waste of time to build an RS version of the A8.

Audi does not build an RS8 because they already have trouble selling the standard A8 in an S Class world

What Audi needs is an A9 'flagship sedan" (not coupe) to compete with the S-Class.

Paragraphs 1 and 2 are correct though

Gotta agree with the posters above. The R8 V10 is "good enough" for buyers, and there aren't a lot of them so making something even more in that direction doesn't seem to make sense. Ferrari, Lambo, McLaren, etc., have those bases covered.

BTW, I didn't know if the opening poster meant an "S" variant of the A8 or R8 when he said "RS8." My post (above) assumes R8.

Audi's biggest challenge is getting the A4, A6, and A8 to sell as well as their Mercedes and BMW counterparts and they have a LOOOOONG way to go before they are even close on that account.

A4 sales would need to nearly quintuple to catch up to the 3 Series.

The A6 would have to more than triple to catch the Mercedes E.

The A8 would have to double its sales to catch up to the Mercedes S and sales of the A8 for the 2014 model year have hit the skids.

Thus doing an RS8 would be patently stupid.

I strongly believe Audi's new design strategy of aggressive, bold and most importantly, differentiation will go a long way in helping Audi catch up to BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. market.

The fact that Audi is relying on front wheel drive architectures is also a dumb move. Mercedes and BMW also have a reliability edge vs Audi.

The only thing Audi should sell is a long-wheelbase version of the S8.

Have any of you sat in the back seat of the S8? An M5 may have more legroom!

Mercedes sells the S63 and S65 in LWB only. Although BMW's lackluster Alipina 7 may be SWB - they don't sell any of those.

Make the S8 LWB. Perhaps then the RS8 can be a "sported-up" SWB version of the package - sporting more turbo boost and more horsepower. The volume sport model would definitely be the LWB though. Its America - bigger is better!

Another problem is this: On my way to work this morning an Audi A4 was traveling faster than the flow so it was not until it got closer that I realized it was an A8.

When Mercedes did the 190 (now C Class) it had mini S Class styling but it was not indistinguishable like with Audi. The current C borrows from the S but no S owner will ever have to worry being mistaken for a C class on approach.

Probably the same reason why BMW doesn't make an M7. The S8 matches up evenly with the S63 but it's unknown if the S65 tops either. All three brands do continue with their 12 cylinder models even if the V8 versions are plenty strong these days. The gains on the RS8 from the S8 would be much smaller than the S6 to RS6.