Audi has officially taken the wraps off the new A8 luxury sedan. The unveil took place at the first ever Audi Global Summit in Barcelona. The new Audi A8, now in its fourth generation, gets an all new exterior design language and an all new and ultra luxurious interior with huge impetus on future technology and connectivity. The new generation Audi A8 will also be capable of advanced Level 3 autonomous driving, the first of its kind for any automobile globally. The new Audi A8 will also support future autonomous driving features like parking pilot, garage pilot and traffic jam pilot. As expected, the Audi A8 gets the Quattro driveline as standard giving it permanent all-wheel-drive.
Watch New Audi A8 First Look:
In terms of exterior design, the new Audi A8 takes its inspiration from the Prologue concept that was showcased back in 2014. The new A8 features the new front end design with a large single frame grille and laser headlamps. The look of course, as is usually the case with the German luxury automaker, is evolutionary and not a big change from the previous generation. That said, it does look a lot more muscular and instantly recognisable from the last generation A8. The new A8 also gets a very distinct front daytime running light design combined with the matrix headlamps.
(New Audi A8 Rear Design)
From the side, the Audi A8 now features a much lower shoulder line that accentuates the width of the new luxury sedan. The new car also gets a set of split 5 spoke alloy wheels and buyers will be able to choose from a few other designs too. The new Audi A8 will feature two length options, the standard A8 with 5170 mm or the A8L with an additional 130 mm. India will only get the A8 L as it always has. The rear is the most distinctive and offers the most differentiated look as compared to any other luxury car or any other Audi in the past. The angled rear end features a new tail lamp design with an end-to-end tail lamp that features OLED tech and a very very cool lighting pattern. This end to end tail lamp feature should eventually extend to other Audi models of the future too.
Moving on to the interior, the new Audi A8 features a simple cockpit design and a very horizontally oriented dashboard. The Audi A8 features screen based controls for most of the functions. These screens also turn off and integrate into the black surface giving the A8 a very minimalist design language. The gloss black surfaces on the interior are complimented with a high mounted wood accent piece that runs across the dashboard and into the side panels. One of the other signature features of the new A8 is the new steering wheel design, the likes of which we haven't seen before. The uniquely styled steering wheel is complimented by steering mounted touch controls and silver accents.
Considering the fact that the Audi A8 is a luxury sedan that is usually chauffer driven, Audi has paid more attention to the rear seats. Buyers can choose the optional 'relaxation seat' in the A8 L that comes with four different adjustment options and a footrest. The footrest will also have an inbuilt massager that can massage and warm the soles of the feet, all of which is incorporated into the front passenger seat. Rear seat luxury continues with matrix LED reading lamps, seat massagers and coolers and a centrally mounted OLED display that will act as a remote control for the car's infotainment systems.
(New Audi A8 Front Design With Matrix Headlamps)
To begin with, the Audi A8 will get 6-cylinder petrol and diesel engines. Eventually, Audi will launch V8 petrol and diesel engines while the top of the line model will be the W12. There will also eventually be a powerful S8 variant. The new A8 will also get a hybrid or electrified version sometime in the future. Expect the new Audi A8 to make it to India sometime next year and cost upwards of Rs 1 Crore.
