We recently noticed that the RS3 Sportback and RS3 Sedan were no longer listed on Audi South Africa’s website and now the firm has confirmed that supply of these two performance vehicles to local dealerships is (temporarily) “no longer possible”.
Audi SA added that this would change at some point in 2019 when supply resumed.
“The supply for Audi RS3 to South Africa is no longer possible due to limited production capacity,” the company told CARmag.co.za.
“Supply constraints are planned to free up next year [2019] in which we will then open up these models to the Audi SA car configurator.”
Audi SA furthermore explained that it had “deactivated the car configurator for those models since a customer order is not able to be processed”.
So, what’s the reason behind the limited production capacity? Well, a report out of Australia late in August 2018 suggested the implementation of the new Worldwide Harmonised Light-Duty Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) standards in markets with EU-homologation was to blame.
As a reminder, the RS3 Sportback and RS3 Sedan each employ a turbocharged 2,5-litre five-cylinder petrol engine sending 294 kW and 480 N.m to all four corners via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Before the vehicles were removed from the local configurator, the hatchback was priced at R903 500 and the sedan at R933 500.
