(August 23, 2013) HERNDON, Va. — Audi is honing the character of its flagship model. The 2015 A8 places Audi among the innovation leaders in the luxury segment. One great strength of the big sedan is its lightweight construction. The Audi A8 3.0 TFSI with the normal wheelbase has a curb weight of just 4,034 pounds — best-in-class for models with all-wheel drive.

The body is made almost entirely of aluminum; an Audi Space Frame (ASF) design, weighing just 509 pounds.

Length (16.86 feet), wheelbase (9.81 feet), width (6.4 feet) and height (4.79 feet) remain unchanged, making the Audi A8 the sportiest sedan in the segment. The A8 L gains an additional 5.12 inch in both length and wheelbase. Both body variants feature a new trunk layout for easier loading. Additional noise damping measures reduce the already low interior noise level even further.



The dynamic design of the big sedan has become even more expressive. The engine hood, the Singleframe grille and the front bumper are even more sculptured; the lower edge of the headlight units is straight. In the German market, LED headlights are standard in all models with a V8 engine.

Audi also offers optional headlights featuring Matrix LED technology, which sets new benchmarks with respect to design and technology. With these headlights, the high-beam comprises 25 individual light-emitting diodes per unit that can be switched on and off or dimmed individually depending on the situation.

This enables the headlight system to react extremely precisely to other vehicles while always brightly illuminating the road. Additional features of the new headlights are the intelligent cornering light, new-look daytime running lights and dynamic turn signals. The lighting system in the A8 uses predictive route data from the navigation system to adjust the distribution of light in response to the current driving situation. In combination with the optional Navigation plus with MMI touch, the system recognizes route data contained in the navigation system, such as curves and road classifications.

The LED lamps at the rear of the new Audi A8 have also become flatter. In all models except the S8, the redesigned bumper houses two rhomboid tailpipes. New chrome strips and high-gloss black window frames round out the differentiating design details. There is a choice of twelve colors, including five new ones. Wheels are available in sizes up to 21 inches.

Audi offers the A8 on the German market with two gasoline and two diesel engines. These are the supercharged 3.0 TFSI with 310 horsepower, the V8 twin-turbo 4.0 TFSI with 435 horsepower, the highly efficient 3.0 TDI clean diesel with 258 horsepower and the extremely high-torque 4.2 TDI clean diesel, which produces 385 horsepower and 626.93 pound-feet of torque.

Performance has increased with most engines. When paired with quattro all-wheel drive, the 4.0 TFSI now accelerates the A8 from 0 to 100 km/h (62.14 mph) in 4.5 seconds. Under partial load, the Audi cylinder on demand (COD) system deactivates four of the eight cylinders.