The 2022 Audi RS3 is due for a reveal any day now and Audi Sport has released some teaser images of its new flagship compact performance offering.

What you see here is the new 2022 Audi RS3 hatchback and sedan, in some stylish camouflage which hides all the finer styling details. There’s no mistaking those big oval exhausts and the gaping front end. We’ve seen numerous Audi RS3 spy shots, giving some idea of what’s to come.

A cute touch is the 1-2-4-5-3 on the side, denoting the firing order of the 2.5-litre 5-cylinder engine. This is surely the official confirmation that the new 2022 Audi RS3 will have 5-cylinder, but to be fair, it would come as quite a shock if the car were to gain an alternate engine.

As for the engine, official outputs and performance are yet to be confirmed. In its current RS Q3 application, the 2.5-litre 5-cylinder is good for 294 kW and 480 Nm, and this powertrain is mated to a 7-speed S tronic gearbox. The sporty crossover is good for a 4.5 second run to 100 kph, but we suspect that the 2022 Audi RS3 will be quicker than that.

With strong rivals in the form of the Mercedes-AMG A45 S / CLA 45 S and BMW M2 Competition, the 2022 Audi RS3 will have its work cut out for it.Audi Sport is in a good place and despite the craziness of 2020, it set a new record for performance vehicle sales with more than 29 300 units finding homes.

The 2022 Audi RS3 is likely to be one of the last few internal combustion-powered products coming out of Ingolstadt as the company will be going electric. Audi Sport says it expects to offer“more than half of our high-performance models in partially or fully electrified form as early as 2024.”

Some form of electrification will be welcome as the benefits are numerous. Not only could cars run on pure electric power on shorter trips, but the performance bonus would be tremendous thanks to the instantaneous torque on offer. We’re already seeing how electrically-assisted turbochargers are offering lag-free near-instant boost.

Stay tuned for the reveal of the 2022 Audi RS3 which we suspect will be in the next month or so.

Further Reading

Audi RS3 sedan review

Audi S3 International Launch Review

Audi A3: Old vs New

Audi RS3 sedan spy shots