A sharpened design and innovative new technologies, Audi is ensuring the increased presence and sporty elegance of the A8, the trailblazer in the premium segment.
Ordering in the UK for the refreshed flagship begins on December 2, with the first customer deliveries due in the second quarter of 2022. The starting price for A8 is £73,375 with long wheelbase starting from £77,375. The S8 is priced at £99,650.
As the successor to the Audi V8, the A8 has been the brand’s leading edge in the luxury saloon segment of Audi’s portfolio since 1994. The Audi A8 is a symbol of and a trailblazer for the status and prestige of the brand. The fourth generation of the luxury saloon, which Audi introduced in 2017, raised it to a new level concerning power, look, and equipment. As an initial series model, the A8 revealed the future design language upon its launch and consequently it is essentially the progressive face of the brand to the present day. The sharpened design coupled with established technologies and outstanding comfort in the back seats defines Audi’s premium conception in this segment. The saloon thereby represents the symbiosis of masterful comfort and sporty handling and it, therefore, covers the full breadth of driving experience. With precision in all details and many intelligent functions, the new A8 is a high-value technology pioneer.
The Audi A8 is a saloon that represents status and exudes authority – now that it has been reworked, its exterior is even more representative, confident, and athletic. The base of the Singleframe grille is now wider and chrome angles that increase in size from bottom to top adorn its grid. The side air intakes are more upright and just as freshly styled as the headlights, whose lower edge on the outside creates a distinctive contour. To summarize, the newly designed and precisely orchestrated design elements in the front area significantly increase the A8’s presence and authority and sharpen the profile of the brand’s top model.
From a side view, the luxury saloon’s progressive character is particularly eye-catching. The roof dome runs flat. Stretched lines in the body of the car emphasize its length, wide wheel arches hint at the standard quattro drive system. In all model variants, the rocker panel area has a concave shape and ends in a blade pointing toward the road. The rear is dominated by wide chrome clasps, a customizable taillight signature with Digital OLEDs, and a continuous, segmented light strip. The diffusor insert in the bumper is delicately accentuated and redesigned with horizontal bars. The Audi S8 presents four flow-optimized pipes under a circumferential contour – typical of the Audi S model. They are one of its characteristic sporty design details.
Beyond the basic exterior, Audi is offering its customers the chrome exterior package and the new S line exterior package. The latter gives the front a dynamic touch and differentiates even more from the basic model: a distinctive blade in the area of the side air intakes augments the frontal view – very similar to the S8. The look is even more defined with the additional black appearance package. The colour swatch for the A8 includes eleven colours, among them the new metallic district green, firmament blue, Manhattan grey, and ultra blue. Also new in the Audi A8 are five matte colours – Daytona grey, florette silver, district green, terra grey and glacier white. In the Audi exclusive program, the car is painted in the customer’s chosen colour.
The product enhancements only minimally change the dimensions of the Audi flagship in the luxury saloon segment. The A8 has a wheelbase of 3.00 meters (9.8 ft.), length of 5.19 meters (17 ft.), width of 1.95 meters (6.4 ft.), and height of 1.47 meters (4.8 ft.). The S8 is about one centimetre longer. The body of the A8 follows the same principle as the Audi Space Frame (ASF): it is made up of 58 percent aluminium parts. The passenger compartment consists of hot-formed steel components supplemented with an ultra-high-strength, extremely torsionally rigid rear panel made of a carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer. Magnesium strut-tower bars complete the lightweight construction concept. The body’s commanding rigidity lays the foundation for precise handling, excellent comfort, and acoustic tranquillity onboard.
Attractive options are also available for the infotainment hardware. The new screens in the back are tailored to the expectations of today’s rear-seat passengers. That means two 10.1-inch displays with full HD resolution attached to the backs of the front seats. They display content from passengers’ devices and can receive numerous audio and video streams via casting, including from well-known streaming platforms, TV media libraries, or cellular networks.
The rear seat remote, which is now firmly mounted to the centre armrest, allows many comfort and infotainment functions to be controlled from the back seat. The control unit, with its OLED touch display, is about as big as a smartphone.
The enhanced Audi A8 is available with four engine options. The 3.0 TDI and the 3.0 TFSI are V6 units, while the 4.0 TFSI in the S8 is a V8 with cylinder on-demand technology. The TFSI e plug-in hybrid model combines the 3.0 TFSI with an electric motor.
The 3.0 TDI is in the Audi A8 50 TDI quattro and the A8 L 50 TDI quattro. It brings 210 kW (286 PS) of power and 600 Nm of torque, which are already present at 1,750 1/min and remain constant up to 3,250 1/min. The diesel engine accelerates both the A8 and A8 L from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.9 seconds and on to the electronically limited top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph), which is uniform across all A8 models.
The 3.0 TFSI drives the Audi A8 55 TFSI quattro with 250 kW (340 PS. From 1,370 to 4,500 rpm, it delivers 500 Nm of torque. From a standing start, it reaches 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.6 seconds.
The Audi A8 60 TFSI e quattro and the A8 L 60 TFSI e quattro are the plug-in hybrid models (PHEV) in the series. The 3.0 TFSI is supported by a compact electric motor. The lithium-ion battery in the rear can now store a net 14.4 kWh (gross: 17.9 kWh) of energy – significantly more than before. With 340 kW (462 PS) of system power and 700 Nm of system torque, the Audi A8 60 TFSI e quattro goes from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.9 seconds (A8 and A8 L).
Plug-in hybrid model drivers can choose between four modes. “EV” stands for fully electric driving, “Hybrid” for an efficient combination of both drive system types, and “Hold” for conserving the available electric energy, while the combustion engine charges the battery in “Charge” mode. The maximum charging capacity – with alternating current – is 7.4 kW. Customers can use the compact e-tron charging system for that in their garage at home or the mode 3 cable when they are on the road. In Europe, the Audi e-tron Charging Service grants access to approximately 250,000 charging points.
