On October 29, the latest flagship product of the Audi brand, the new Audi A8L Horch Founder Edition, made its global debut. Adhering to the promise made 112 years ago by the founder of the Audi brand, Mr. August Horch, “I am determined to produce only powerful, high-quality luxury cars under any circumstances.” Audi has never given up on its continuous exploration of flagship luxury cars. Audi has launched a new Audi A8L Horch founder version in the Chinese market based on the mid-term facelift of the A8L model. It is also paying tribute to the founder of the brand. The new car has greatly upgraded the wheelbase size of the body and the luxury of interior workmanship and configuration. In the future, it will be fully aligned with the Mercedes-Maybach S-class sold in the Chinese market.
● The new Audi A8L Horch Founder Edition is Audi’s first D+-class flagship sedan, specially built for the Chinese market, released at the Guangzhou Auto Show
● The wheelbase of the new Audi A8L Horch Founder Edition has been extended by 130mm, and the new extended wheelbase mainly contributes to the rear space
● The front face adopts an exclusive grille design, and the “Horch” logo and “H” exclusive logo are added in many details of the body
● The new Audi A8L Horch Founder Edition adds two exclusive exterior colors: Oakgrun and Nimbusgrau
1. First, let’s take a look at what Horch is?
Horch was originally an ultra-luxury car brand, which was founded in 1899 and then abandoned in 1958. Everyone knows the origin of Audi’s fourth ring, right? Auto Union. That’s right, it’s not a four-ring formed just for the sake of styling. Its four rings correspond to a car brand, which has witnessed the glory of German automobile manufacturing in the past 100 years. These four rings represent Horch, Audi, and Roam.者, DKW. Among them, the relationship between Audi and Horch is extremely complicated. The founders of both brands are “August Horch”.
In 1899, August Horch founded the “Horch” brand, with the company SLOGEN “only manufacturing strong and high-quality cars”, and has been practicing this car manufacturing concept in the following years. But in 1909, August Horch had a huge disagreement with the board of directors and the supervisory board. He left Horch in angrily and decided to re-create a company in the same year, and the Audi brand was born.
The exterior was painted in dazzling yellow, with a brown soft roof, green leather interior, and a sports cabriolet with a 12-cylinder engine-the Horch 670 defined the luxury car market that year, and Horch cars occupied even more Leading position in the luxury car market. Facing the economic crisis, the German auto market has begun to decline, and group heating has become the best way to maintain the company’s operations. So in 1932, the four companies Horch, Audi, DKW, and Wanderer merged into the Auto Union, and the four-ring logo is still in use today.
2. Why did Audi A8L launch the Horch version?
33 years ago, Audi officially launched a luxury car in the Chinese market.Audi brand“first”Launched the Audi V8, a large luxury sedan, which marked“Milestone” model of Hyundai Audi’s luxury origin, Is the predecessor of the Audi A8 car series. The pursuit of extreme enterprising spirit of “only high-quality luxury cars under any circumstance” has been passed on for centuries and has become the core DNA of the Audi brand. In this way, the resurrection of the Horch brand is the general trend. After all, Mercedes has also resurrected the Maybach brand. The similarity between Audi and Mercedes-Benz is that neither of them can become independent brands. At present, Audi belongs to the Volkswagen Group, and its Bentley is responsible for the flagship ultra-luxury brand positioning, so Horch can only be attached to the Audi brand’s flagship model to become a higher-end and more luxurious version of the model. The Audi A8L clearly deserves it.
Let’s take a look again, the pricing of the Mercedes-Maybach S-class ranges from 1.46-2.38 million yuan. The target customers are those ultra-luxury courtesy car customers with a budget of 2 to 3 million. It has not lowered the price, and successfully avoided the million-level luxury executive car market occupied by the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, so as to avoid internal competition. It can be said that it has no rivals at all. On the Audi side, the Volkswagen Group has Bentley in the ultra-luxury market, and Audi A8L in the million class. It’s okay for Audi to learn from Mercedes-Maybach. The price range of 1 million to 2 million just lacks a product, and the Audi A8L Horch is just right.
3. What are the killers to create the most luxurious Audi A8L Horch?
The brand-new vertical net style first harvests a wave of “eye-catching gifts”. On how a luxury car product can quickly attract attention, it is most effective to change to a China network. The appearance design of the new Audi A8L Horch founder’s edition continues the luxury and enterprising genes of the Audi brand. The front face adopts an exclusive grille design, and the internal three-dimensional chrome decoration makes the entire grille look more atmospheric, which is also a tribute to the history of the Horch brand. High-end models provide digital matrix LED headlights, adding majesty and self-confidence to the front face.
On the side of the body, the new car increases the length and wheelbase of the vehicle by lengthening the rear half of the body, and the line proportion is more perfect. The body length of the new Audi A8L Horch Founder Edition is close to 5.5 meters. Compared with the A8L model, the wheelbase is longer by 130mm, and all the lengthened dimensions are used for the second-row legs. In terms of details, the C-pillar triangular window of the body bears the Horch logo. The exclusive 20-inch wheels with the H logo are also more luxurious.
At the rear of the car, the OLED taillights, which integrate Audi’s advanced lighting technology, are paired with the newly designed lower enclosure and the “Horch” logo to achieve a high degree of recognition of the body. The new Audi A8L Horch Founder’s Edition adds two exclusive exterior colors, Oakgrun and Nimbusgrau, showing the noble style. In addition, the new Audi A8L Horch Founder’s Edition, as the top flagship model, will provide a two-tone body design that can adopt three color schemes, giving consumers top noble exclusive choices.
As the ceiling of the Audi brand, the Audi A8L Horch spares no effort in stacking materials in the car. The sense of respect and luxury brought by the exclusive elements of “Horch”. From the front row, the new car still uses Audi’s digital virtual cockpit, and we are no strangers to the full-touch MMI operating system and three-screen linkage design. The air-conditioning outlet of the new car adopts a hidden design, which is very ceremonial when it is turned on. The front and rear seats and doors are designed with a diamond pattern, detailed processing and comfortable touch bring a new modern luxury experience.
The luxury experience in the rear of the new Audi A8L Horch founder’s edition is the biggest highlight of this car. The rear seats have twice the cushioning padding, with the unique rear foot massage function of the same level, which fully interprets the ergonomic comfort. The front/rear seat massage function has 8 different massage modes, which can be controlled through the function buttons on the seat, the central touch screen and the rear remote control. The atmosphere is equipped with B&O high-end speakers with hidden adjustable acoustic prisms, rear vanity mirrors, thick pile carpets at the bottom, and panoramic sunroofs, which provide the rear passengers with top-notch riding enjoyment. From the details, we can see that the rear center armrest is also embroidered with the HROCH logo, which also demonstrates the respected identity and social status of the riders.
The new Audi A8L Horch Founder Edition is equipped with the Audi connect interconnection technology system specially designed for the Chinese market and is based on MIB3+Asterix’s new Audi interconnection platform. In addition, it is equipped with active/passive technologies such as intelligent automatic parking systems and driving assistance systems.
In terms of power, the new car will continue the 3.0T turbocharged V6 engine +48V light hybrid on the current model, with a maximum power of 340 horsepower and a maximum torque of 500 N·m. The transmission system will be matched with an 8-speed automatic manual gearbox and quattro as standard. Four-wheel drive system.
Summarize
The strategic positioning of “only for China, exclusive to China” allows the new Audi A8L Horch to have configuration functions that are more in line with the preferences of high-end Chinese consumers, especially the bottom massage function of the rear row. This time Audi has finally established itself in the luxury D+ executive car market relying on the A8L Horch model. Although the luxury atmosphere is not as good as the Maybach, many unique configurations of the same level still have the right to speak. It is believed that in the future, when new cars are officially sold in the Chinese market, they will grab a part of the Maybach S-class market share, especially the customer base of the Mercedes-Maybach S 480. The new car will be officially unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show which opens on November 19, when Chinese consumers can experience the luxury experience that belongs to the Audi taste.Return to Sohu to see more
.