Foreword: 10 years ago, in the million-level executive luxury car market, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series and Audi A8L are all divided into this market cake, the advantages of the S-Class compared to the 7 Series and A8L are not very large, and since Mercedes-Benz resurrected the Maybach and launched the Maybach S, it is basically in a completely leading state, and the market presence of the Audi A8L has gradually decreased, in the face of the gradual seriousness of this situation, Audi is also trying to find a way to get a slight advantage on the front line. Therefore, after discontinuing the top-of-the-line A8L of the V12 cylinder, the new Audi A8L Horch version was officially unveiled in October last year.
Another German "Maybach S-Class", the length of the car is more than 5 meters 4, even the footboard is massaged, V6 + full-time four-wheel drive! Before introducing the Audi A8L Horch version, let's briefly talk about the source of the name of the car, Horch Hoch is the founder of Audi, in fact, and Mercedes-Benz resurrection Maybach is the same routine, so in a certain sense the car is currently the top Audi executive car, anecdotally called the Audi version of the "Maybach S-class", also because 60% of the global sales of A8L come from China, so the future of the car is exclusively for the domestic market, and from the perspective of the configuration of the vehicle, the pricing will be much lower than the Maybach S 580 4MATIC。
Judging from the official news, the A8L Horch version is based on the 2022 A8L to build, and for the change of its whole vehicle, the first natural is to lengthen, this is the step that must be carried out, fully meet the preferences of the Chinese people, the body has been lengthened by 130mm, so the length exceeds 5.4 meters, but Audi is lazy here, just simply lengthening the rear door, and the Maybach S-class is by widening the C-pillar, so the most direct visual difference is that the A8L Horch version is more blunt, The Maybach S-Class will be more elegant, which is something to point out, and the new car is also equipped with vintage flatbread wheels, which is also not violated.
Back to the design level, the overall design outline and the current sale of A8L is no different, but there are still obvious differences in the details, the first is the front grille, vertical chrome decoration is indeed very luxurious, more than the normal version of the A8L more aura, with two sides of the matrix LED headlights, the aura is not inferior to the Maybach S-class, especially the light group also has a counter-blinding and lane beam control function. There is also a clear difference is the body color of the whole vehicle, A8L Horch founder edition of the new oak green (Oakgrun), rain cloud gray (Nimbusgrau) two exclusive appearance colors, shown in the picture is oak green, very stylish and exemplary, but also will provide three two-color body design options.
Although the Audi A8L Horch is the same as the current A8L on sale in the interior design, but with the new Maybach S-class interior is particularly high-tech, so an executive flagship car with a high-tech interior is naturally not obtrusive, 12.3-inch LCD dashboard (Audi virtual cockpit enhanced version), 10.1-inch touch-type central display, 8.6-inch air conditioning control panel, three large screens will be full of technology, the actual market reputation is also very good, in addition, the vehicle's material is wrapped in leather, As well as wood grain trim decorated as the main luxury point.
From the back of the space performance can clearly see the advantages of the extension, not to mention the legs of the stilt erlang, the rear row can be placed in two rows of seats, this is everyone's dream of the executive car, the rear row is two independent VIP seats, with ventilation, heating, massage, upgraded rest board also with foot massage function, long-distance ride is really comfortable, and like the car refrigerator, rear double-layer acoustic glass, B&O 3D audio system, etc. are not absent, as well as the standard configuration of the top car adaptive air suspension, etc. have appeared, However, there is also a disadvantage that the cushion is short, so if you are paralyzed, the leg support will not be in place.
One of the things that surprised me was that the new Audi A8L Horch was equipped with a 3.0T V6 engine, with a maximum power of 340 horsepower and a maximum torque of 500 Nm, supplemented by a 48-volt mixing system, not that the power was not strong enough, but the 4.0T or higher engine would have a better fit, matching the 8-speed automatic transmission and the quattro full-time four-wheel drive system. Finally, for the new Audi A8L Horch, this is the enhanced luxury of the A8L, from the current market situation, Audi is right, young business people are relatively more likely to choose a young and cost-effective and more in the control range of the Horch A8L.