Why V8-selling brand loves Australia's tough new emissions laws: 2025 Audi Q and Q6 e-tron to prolong the life of V8 muscle machines such as the Audi RS6

If you were a company selling an eight-cylinder twin-turbo engine in 2025 it would be easy to take issue with the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) in Australia.

Some brands have labelled them too aggressive, and now that they are in force, resigning themselves to the fact things are going to be much more difficult for their petrol and diesel heavy ranges.

Audi, which sells its Q8 and RS6 both with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo eight-cylinder engine, has nothing but good things to say about NVES. The new rules have changed the way it is able to negotiate with its factory back in Germany.

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The brand’s local Managing Director, Jeff Mannering, explained how Australia becoming a “C02 sensitive market” has allowed it to rapidly expand on its range of electric and hybrid vehicles at exactly the right time.

“We’ve been behind Europe in terms of the technologies available. Audi in Australia is an important market worldwide, but now we’re a priority because we’ve become a C02 sensitive market” he explained.

2025 Audi RS6 Avant

That fundamental change means Audi will have an aggressive model replacement cycle in a short period of time. The Q4 and Q6 electric SUVs are now available and a long-awaited array of upgraded hybrid technologies will refresh the brand’s ageing core catalogue.

Audi will now not have access to the new Q5 SUV within six months of it going on sale in Europe, which would previosuly have taken much longer. It will arrive with MHEV+ engines, which are a more advanced and emissions lowering mild hybrid tech than fitted to the current versions.

“If you look at the lifecycle of our cars, some of them are up to their eighth or ninth year on sale now. We’ll have the newest line-up in the market this year and it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to say that.” Mannering added.

The range-wide renewal made possible by these NVES laws ironically also means Audi will be able to continue to sell its 4.0-litre V8 models longer than many of its rivals. Mannering explained the current situation will ultimately put Audi in a sweet spot to provide “something for every consumer”.

2025 Audi RSQ8

“A BEV, a PHEV, an ICE car - if you look at the market this is why the Q4 and Q6 are so important because it adds volume to BEVs, but we need plug-in hybrids as well because of those C02 targets.”

Mannering’s comments add to those made to CarsGuide last year by Audi’s head of product Matt Dale, who explained RS models will be able to continue because the strict new rules imposed by the government have led to increases in hybrid technology available to the brand.

“RS models, overall, have a small impact because we can have cars like the Q6” Dale said at the time, while he admitted the brand would still have a task in front of it increasing those BEV sales over time, as it is in the early phases, just one sale of a Q6 or Q4 could off-set the emissions of “ten, twenty, or thirty ICE cars.”

The Q6 e-tron lands in customer hands imminently, with prices starting from $115,500 before on-roads. In Q3 of 2025, this car will be joined by the new-generation Q5 which brings with it a brand new PPC combustion platform sporting hybrid tech across the range.