Report: 2012 Audi A6 to be offered with 2.0T, RS4 not in the cards for U.S.

Jeff Kuhlman, head of Audi USA's communications department, recently confirmed to Inside Line that the 2012 A6 will be available with a four-cylinder engine when it goes on sale this summer. This will be the first time a U.S.-spec A6 will be offered with four-cylinder power.

The engine, Audi's familiar (and lovely) 2.0-liter turbocharged four, will be paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission. No power numbers are available as of this writing, but Inside Line reports that the A6 2.0T should be able to hit 28 miles per gallon on the highway.

Kuhlman also tells IL that the automaker has no plans to offer the next-generation RS4 in our market. A shame, too, since the black RS4 Avant we recently spied would look oh-so-good in the Autoblog Towers parking lot.

Audi is already planning to launch the TT RS in the third quarter of 2011, followed by the RS5 in the summer of 2012. Kuhlman says that Audi does not want to over-extend the RS range here in the U.S., though if we had our choice, at least a few of us would gladly scrap the RS5 in favor of the new RS4. We think.