Audi Grandsphere concept reportedly going into production as next A8
The following-generation Audi A8 will borrow a number of key styling cues and options from the GrandSphere idea, in accordance with a current report. The luxurious sedan will land in showrooms in a few years as an electrical sedan with a spacious inside and a protracted checklist of tech options.
Constructed on the PPE platform developed collectively with Porsche, the next-generation A8 will undertake the E-Tron nameplate, in accordance with British journal Autocar. It is anticipated to make its official debut in 2023, and the publication realized that the general design will not change a lot.
“The GrandSphere is a really concrete teaser. It is not distant from what’s going to turn out to be manufacturing. It is not 1:1 however very shut,” Marc Lichte, the top of Audi’s design division, informed Autocar. It appears like Audi’s subsequent flagship sedan will obtain a whole exterior make-over.
Whereas the outside design should not change a lot, it will likely be fascinating to see how a lot of the inside makes the leap from idea automobile to manufacturing automobile. Audi developed the GrandSphere with Stage 4 autonomous know-how in thoughts and designed the inside accordingly; Oliver Hoffmann, the top of Audi’s technical growth, informed Autoblog in 2021 that the idea was created from the within out.
It is too early to inform precisely what the next-generation A8 shall be powered by, however the sedan will completely be accessible with an electrical drivetrain; the PPE platform is not appropriate with a gasoline-powered engine. For context, the idea unveiled in 2021 (pictured) used a pair of electrical motors (one per axle) rated at 710 horsepower and 708 pound-feet of torque. They had been linked to an enormous, 120-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack that shops sufficient electrical energy for a driving vary of as much as 466 miles. Audi quoted a 0-to-60-mph time of about 4 seconds.
The following-generation A8 is not the one high-end electrical mannequin that Audi will unveil in 2024. British journal Prime Gear realized that the German agency’s product roadmap additionally contains an electrical RS6 E-Tron based mostly on the next-generation A6, which hasn’t been unveiled but however ought to keep comparatively near the A6 E-Tron idea launched in April 2021 and the A6 Avant E-Tron idea unveiled in March 2022.
Additionally constructed on the PPE platform, the RS6 E-Tron will reportedly stand out from the A6 with extra energy and a extra muscular-looking exterior design — these options have characterised Audi’s high-power wagons for the reason that RS2 made its debut as an evolution of the 80 in 1994.
“I really like the RS6 as a result of I can put bikes inside, skis, so many issues. That’s why I like it. And for me, stance. It’s all the time the large observe. And if you concentrate on opponents of Audi, are they out there proper now with efficiency EVs with the broader observe? I’d say no,” Lichte mentioned.
There is not any phrase but on whether or not the RS6 E-Tron will attain our market.
:
