On October 29th, Beijing time, the new Audi A8 (configuration|inquiry) Horch made its global debut. The car was specially developed for the Chinese market. The Audi A8 Horch is a top-level luxury model built for the Chinese market and is a practice of Audi” In China, it is a high-end model with the slogan “China”. It will be unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show on November 19th, and the name is called the new Audi A8 Horch Founder Edition.
What does Horch mean? It is the name of Mr. August Horch, the founder of the Audi brand, and a representative of the top flagship Audi sedan. The car is nearly 5.5 meters long, which is 130mm longer than the regular A8. The new car has two exclusive body colors, Cloud Rain Grey and Oak Green.
The wheels are exclusive polished aluminum mirror design, and Horch logo. The body has the exclusive A8 Horch logo hung on the rear of the front fender and on the C-pillar.
As a product of Audi’s “Light Factory”, it is equipped with digital matrix LED headlights and OLED taillights.
For the interior, it is equipped with Audi connect interconnection technology system, based on MIB3+Asterix’s new Audi interconnection platform, and a full touch MMI operating system. Equipped with B&O 3D audio, as well as in-car fragrance and negative ion air purification system.
Both front and rear rows have 8 massage modes. The interior also has exclusive “Horch” elements. The rear seats and center armrests are embroidered with the “Horch” logo, with luminous “Horch” door sill trims.
In terms of power, it is equipped with a 3.0L turbocharged V6 engine and a 48V light-hybrid system. The Audi A8 Horch will make its real car debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show on November 19.
According to data, from 2015 to 2021, the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class sold more than 60,000 units worldwide, especially in China, where Mercedes-Benz dealers delivered an average of 600 units per month, and the average monthly sales in 2017 were even More than 700 units. The success of Mercedes-Maybach has made Mercedes-Benz a lot of money, and it has become a model of classic car brand transformation. Now, Audi will follow in the footsteps of Mercedes-Benz and launch the Audi A8 Horch. Like Maybach, Horch is also derived from the name of Audi founder August Horch. The return of Horch will be tied to Audi’s flagship model A8 long-axis version, which is expected to be launched on the market at the end of 2021.
As early as five years ago, one and a half years before the release of the fourth-generation Audi A8 (internal codenamed D5), Audi design director Marc Lichte said that considering the revival of Mercedes-Benz With the Mercedes-Maybach brand, Audi will also make a similar move. At that time, he had already submitted the design sketches, but just waited for the market’s response to the long-axis version. Now that this generation of Audi A8 has been on the market for four years and is about to undergo a mid-term facelift, the time to launch the Audi A8 Horch is now ripe.
The new Audi A8 Horch will continue the classic styling of the A8, including the family-style hexagonal chrome-plated large-mouth grille, but a new pattern is formed by 8 horizontal bars and 8 vertical bars, and the Audi four-ring logo is located in the center. On both sides of the grille are sharp-shaped tear-eye LED headlights and integrated narrow strip daytime running lights. Below the headlights is a small hexagonal chrome-plated air intake design that echoes the shape of the grille.
It is reported that the biggest driving force for the launch of the A8 Horch is the demand of Chinese consumers. Of course, this car is also important to the Audi brand itself. The new Audi A8 Horch super luxury sedan provides additional interior space, and the passenger compartment also shows the design of future cars.
However, before that, Audi needs to respond to the market competition of Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Lexus LS and BMW 7 Series through the A8. The mid-term facelift of the Audi A8 is already under development. The latest renderings are shown above, including the headlight design, which will be more technological and worthy of the name of the lamp factory. In addition, there are reports that Audi will also launch a PHEV plug-in hybrid version, increasing the pure electric driving range to 55 kilometers.
The Audi A8 Horch’s competitor is undoubtedly the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. Considering that the current domestic price of the latter is between RMB 1.468 million and RMB 2.388 million, the starting price of the Audi A8L and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class is similar. The starting price of new cars on the market should also be around 1.5 million. For more news about the Audi A8 Horch, stay tuned for follow-up reports.
(Editor in charge: Li Shuo)
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