New Audi A8

Audi has officially pulled the wraps off the new 2022 Audi A8 facelift flagship luxury sedan. The updated model now comes with bolder styling, a host of new and revised features, and a portfolio of new tech. In fact, with the new A8, the Ingolstadt-based luxury carmaker has also revived the Horch brand, by introducing a top-of-the-line Audi A8 L Horch model. However, the Horch trim will be exclusively sold in China. The new top-end trim will allow the A8 to go up against the likes of the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, Bentley Flying Spur, and Genesis G90L Limousine among others. Audi will begin the sale of the car in Europe in December 2021. India is likely to get in some time in 2022.

Visually, the new Audi A8 looks much sharper now with the enhanced design and styling. This includes a new, larger grille, revised headlights, new wheels and much more. Audi is offering a chrome exterior package and, for the first time in the A8, the new S line exterior package. The former comes with heavy use of chrome exterior accents which is something that attracts customers both in China and India. Audi is offering the new A8 in several colours, which include - new metallic District Green, Firmament Blue, Manhattan Grey, and Ultra Blue, along with matte shades like - Daytona Grey, Florette Silver, District Green, and Glacier White.

Audi also offers its Digital Matrix LED headlights as an option with the new A8. Each headlight has approximately 1.3 million micromirrors, which disperse the light in tiny pixels and precisely control them. One new function is lane and orientation lights for highways. The car also gets OLED (organic light emitting diode) taillights as a standard feature. When ordering the car, customers can also choose between two rear light signature patterns - three with the S8 - and in conjunction with the assistance systems, the digital OLED rear lights have a proximity indication feature. The wheel range for the A8, which goes from 18 to 21 inches, includes six new designs from Audi and Audi Sport. In top versions like the Audi S8, Audi offers carbon fibre ceramic brake disks as an option.

Inside, the interior layout is more horizontally oriented to give the car a wider appearance. The car also gets the ambient light package plus and reading lights in the rear that use Matrix LED technology. Audi is also offering multiple options when it comes to seat equipment, depending on the model, and the best you can get is the relaxation seat in A8 L. It offers numerous adjustment options and a footrest on the back of the passenger seat, along with heating and massage options for the feet. The cabin also comes with an optional continuous centre console and fold-out tables, four-zone deluxe automatic air conditioning, and the new 10.1 inch screens at the rear. Audi also offers an optional cooler including a bar compartment. The seats are upholstered in Valetta leather as a standard, while Valcona leather is also available as an option.

In terms of technology, the Audi A8 comes with two displays (10.1-inch and 8.6-inch) which also includes a natural voice operation, responding to the command - 'Hey Audi'. The car also gets a completely digital Audi virtual cockpit, with the optional head-up display. The company also offers the MMI Navigation plus as standard, which is supported by the third-generation modular infotainment toolkit (MIB 3). The navigation system also includes standard online and Car-2-X services as part of Audi Connect, the connected car tech. The A8 also gets about 40 driver assistance systems, and while the Audi pre sense basic and Audi pre sense front safety systems come as standard, customers also get optional "Park," "City," and "Tour" packages. Features like the night vision assistant and surround-view cameras are available separately.

The Audi A8 is offered with a 3.0-litre TFSI V6 engine, and a 4.0-litre TFSI is offered in various power output options. The latter also comes with cylinder on-demand technology, where four out of the eight cylinders are deactivated, when the car is at cruising speeds, to offer better efficiency. The Audi S8 TSFI quattro, which gets the biturbo V8, generates 563 bhp and 800 Nm of torque from 2,050 to 4,500 rpm. All engines come mated to the eight-step Tiptronic automatic transmission, along with constant all-wheel drive quattro with the self-locking centre differential is standard, optionally supplemented with the sport differential. While features like adaptive air suspension with controlled damping and progressive steering are standard, dynamic all-wheel steering is offered as an optional extra. Only the performance oriented S8 gets predictive active suspension, sport differential, and dynamic all-wheel steering built as standard. A plug-in hybrid model (PHEV) will be introduced later.

Other Upcoming Audi Models are the New Q3 and New A3