2025 Audi RS Q8 Performance Review: Bargain Bull, German bite

India Today

5 days ago

I'm beginning to feel like the engineers at Audi's RS division have been feeling a little left out of this whole process of making Audi a brand that aligns with tree-huggers and polar bear lovers. While the rest of the Audi lineup gets increasingly friendly, hybridised, and dare I say—mindful—the RS boys have just been hanging around the Nrburgring car park like unsupervised teenagers with access to a CNC machine. Sure, there's the occasional S3 update or a facelifted RS3 that makes the rounds, but by and large, they've been quiet. Too quiet.
While the RS Q8 has gotten a mid-life facelift, it is no ordinary update.
advertisementSo, when their presumably cobweb-riddled hotline finally rang to inform them they needed to begin work on a quick update for the RS Q8, they overcompensated with the enthusiasm of a teenager left alone with their dad's credit card. Keep in mind, this is, in essence, a mid-life facelift. But if you've spent even ten minutes in the outgoing version, you'll know this is no ordinary update. This is a statement.You get the sense that the RS crew felt like they had something to prove. Maybe it was the rising popularity of the Lamborghini Urus Performante, a car that shares its DNA with the Q8 but wears much louder clothes and charges twice as much at the club. Maybe it was BMW's XM or the Urus SE giving people the illusion that plug-in hybrids could also be fire-breathing monsters. Whatever it was, the RS Q8 Performance is the answer. And it's more of a mic drop than a facelift.
The RS Q8 was always the under-the-radar bruiser in the Volkswagen Group's heavyweight SUV division.
advertisementAudi RS Q8 Performance review: Why should you care about a facelift?
The RS Q8 was always the under-the-radar bruiser in the Volkswagen Group's heavyweight SUV division. It was quieter than the Urus, cheaper, more mature, but arguably less fun at the limit. This updated version has been downing double espressos and watching old DTM races on repeat.The biggest headline? 641 horsepower and 850Nm of torque? That it's up from 600bhp and 800Nm? Nah, that's not it. Here's the kicker—it now laps the Nrburgring in 7 mins 36 seconds. That's six and a half seconds quicker than the last RS Q8 and a tick ahead of some dedicated sports cars from just a few years ago. This thing is officially not playing games.
The RS Q8 Performance is still powered by the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 remains, but it's been retuned, remapped, and sharpened.
What changed? The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 remains, but it's been retuned, remapped, and sharpened. New lightweight pistons, updated ECU logic, bigger turbos and a revised exhaust system that doesn't just roar—it snarls. Audi claims it's 66kg lighter too, thanks to more aggressive use of carbon-fibre bits and a diet plan that might've worked better than your last one.advertisementThe 0–100 km/h time now sits at 3.6 seconds, which is ridiculous when you remember this SUV weighs well over 2.3 tonnes and seats five people in S-Class-like comfort. What's more ridiculous is the way it delivers that power. The old RS Q8 had muscle. This one has malice
The RS Q8 still gets the wide stance, the gaping grille that could swallow small dogs whole, and more vents than a Roman bathhouse.
Visually, the changes are incremental, but the attitude is not. You still get the wide stance, the gaping grille that could swallow small dogs whole, and more vents than a Roman bathhouse. But now, there's a more sculpted chin, a reworked rear diffuser, and optional 23-inch wheels( like on our test car) that look like something you'd find on a CGI villain's spaceship. What is worth noting here is Audi's devil-may-care approach to hybridisation, aerodynamics or any of those other physics-driven technologies that modern performance cars use to leverage their milk carton-sized motors. The RS Q8 is biblical, it's a force of nature. Other forces don't bend to its will; they form in its wake. And that is something you get a sense of from the time this new RS alpha-SUV enters the frame.advertisementThe lighting is sharper, the lines more chiselled, and everything looks like it's been tightened up by someone who's been watching German engineering documentaries on loop. It's still recognisably an RS Q8, but the design now screams less "premium SUV" and more "apex predator in business casual."
The interior has a familiar Audi excellence, tuned, everything feels tight, precise, and extremely expensive without being loud or intense.
Audi RS Q8 Performance review: Design and interiorsStep inside, and it's all familiar Audi excellence—but turned up with just the right amount of testosterone. Alcantara. Carbon fibre. Optional red stitching so intense you'd think the car's been bleeding performance data.
Alcantara lined gear lever subtly offers a touch of performance.
advertisementThe dual touchscreen layout remains, which means you'll still be wiping fingerprints off every surface like an obsessive-compulsive raccoon, but everything feels tight, precise, and extremely expensive without being loud or intense. The seating position is spot on—high enough to assert dominance, low enough to feel like you're in control of something with real venom, and what stands out is how flexible the range of adjustment is. Rahul could find a comfortable position right where he likes it, hovering inches from the headliner, and I well I could be almost on the seat rails, racecar style.
Everything in the interior feels tight, precise, and extremely expensive without being loud or intense.
You get massage seats, a Bang & Olufsen sound system that can simulate a Berlin nightclub, and enough rear seat legroom to make even the grumpiest back-seat driver shut up. The boot? Massive. Because even performance needs to be practical.
The 65-litre boot adds practicality to the performance-oriented SUV.
advertisementAudi RS Q8 Performance review: Performance, ride and handlingThis is where the RS Q8 Performance earns its stripes—and probably scares a few chiropractors. Fire it up, and the V8 gurgle tells you immediately: 'I'm not here for your ESG report.' The throttle is razor-sharp, and the 8-speed tiptronic gearbox does its job with the smooth aggression of a hitman in a tuxedo.
Fire it up, and the V8 gurgle tells you immediately: 'I'm not here for your ESG report.'
Audi's quattro all-wheel-drive system shuffles power around with spooky intelligence. That connecting you can throw the RS Q8 into corners far harder than physics says you should, and it'll come out the other side like nothing happened. As the sway bar connects and disconnects electronically, it gives you maximum grip in a corner without sacrificing any articulation over bumps. There's also a new torque splitter from the RS 3, giving this leviathan actual rear-biased dynamics in certain drive modes.But what gets you is the range. Usually, asking an SUV to be quick is quite enough, but asking it to be quick while somehow swallowing the moving masses of the 2.3-tonne frame. Ride quality is surprisingly forgiving in Comfort mode, thanks to adaptive air suspension, but once you flick it into Dynamic, the car hunkers down, the steering weights up, and the exhaust starts gargling lava. It's one of the few SUVS that makes you laugh maniacally in corners and still gets you home without a backache.
The revised exhaust system doesn't just roar—it snarls.
Braking power is absurd. With optional carbon ceramics, you could probably stop the car just by glaring at the pedal.Now let's get to the spicy part. The Audi RS Q8 Performance, with all this newfound aggression, comes in at a price that's nearly half of what Lamborghini asks for a Urus Performante. Sure, the Lambo's got flair, and a badge that makes valet guys scramble harder, but under the skin, these two are practically siblings.Same platform. Same engine block. Same gearbox. But here, you get a car that's faster around the 'Ring, more understated, and loaded to the gills. The Audi feels like the grown-up who went to the gym quietly every day, and now happens to bench more than its flashy cousin.It's hard not to see the RS Q8 Performance as the thinking man's Urus. Or more accurately, the enthusiast's middle finger to badge snobbery.
Thelighting of the RS Q8 is sharper and the lines more chiselled.
Audi RS Q8 Performance review: VerdictThe 2025 Audi RS Q8 Performance is not just a facelift—it's a full-blown uprising. It's a reminder that Audi's RS division, when provoked, can build monsters. Refined monsters. Well-dressed monsters. But monsters all the same.It blends performance that edges supercars with comfort that rivals limousines. It feels special, sounds menacing, and moves like physics forgot to show up to the meeting. In an era where performance SUVS are either too shouty (Urus), too ugly (XM), or too compromised (G63), this is the Goldilocks pick. It's just right.And best of all? It proves that sometimes, the quiet ones hit the hardest.Subscribe to Auto Today Magazine- Ends