The new A8 will be produced at the Neckarsulm plant and will be launched onto the German market at the end of November this year. The basic price for the flagship is 90,600 euros (RM452,000); the long-wheelbase version starts at 94,100 euros (RM469,000).
The A8 starts out in its home market with two V6 turbo engines: a 3.0 TDI and a 3.0 TFSI (A8 50 TDI quattro and A8 55 TFSI quattro respectively). The diesel unit produces 286hp and develops 600Nm of torque. It propels the A8 with its standard-fit quattro drive from zero to 100kph in 5.9 seconds and on up to an electronically limited top speed of 250 kph.
The 3.0-litre turbocharged direct injection petrol engine delivers output of 340hp with torque of 500 Nm. The A8 takes 5.6 seconds to sprint from 0 to 100kph, and the A8 L takes 5.7 seconds.
Both engines use a belt alternator starter, which lies at the heart of the 48-volt main electrical system. This mild-hybrid technology enables coasting with the engine switched off and a smooth restart. It also has an extended start/stop function and a high recuperation output of up to 12 kW thanks to energy recovered during braking. The combined effect of these measures is to bring down the fuel consumption of the efficient engines further – by as much as 0.7 litres per 100 kilometers in real driving conditions.
The new MMI touch response is said to be safe, intuitive and quick to use because of acoustic and haptic feedback along with common touch gestures such as swiping.
More than 40 driver assistance systems are built into the A8. It is the world’s first production car to have been developed specially for conditional automated driving. The Audi AI traffic jam pilot will take charge of driving in slow-moving traffic at up to 60 kph on highways and multi-lane motorways with a physical barrier separating the two directions of traffic.
From 2018, Audi will gradually be taking piloted driving functions such as parking pilot, garage pilot and traffic jam pilot into production, depending on the legal situation in the particular country. During piloted driving, a central driver assistance controller now permanently computes an image of the surroundings by merging the sensor data. In addition to the radar sensors, a front camera and the ultrasonic sensors, Audi is the first car maker also to use a laser scanner.
The A8 is the first production model to feature the brand’s new type designation at the rear. The reference value for the double-digit number combination is the power output of the individual model in kilowatts.
The numeral combinations increase in increments comprising five designations each, and they represent the hierarchy within both the respective model ranges and the brand’s overall model portfolio.
Thus the numeral combination “50” will in future appear on the back of those models which deliver between 210 and 230 kW of power; “55” stands for the power output range between 245 and 275 kW. This new system will allow Audi to standardise the type designations for its worldwide range of cars.
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