The all-new Audi A7 is a continuation of the most beautiful legend, but also a true self
Author: Zhang Bei
As the face of the Audi family, the Audi A7 Sportback has been regarded as a benchmark for automotive aesthetics since its inception, with an original textbook-level design to achieve a "beautiful and uncompromising" style. In particular, its Sportback styling has always been imitated, but it is difficult to surpass.
At the end of 2023, the 2024 Audi A7 Sportback, which was fully imported by FAW Audi, was officially launched. The market guide price of the three models is 589,800-788,800 yuan.
Crowned the most beautiful coupe, the new Audi A7 Sportback gives high-end users who are looking for sport and technology a more personal option in addition to executive sedans and SUVs. In terms of appearance, the design potential of the whole is maximized, so that this medium and large coupe has become a vehicle for Audi designers to express their inspiration and creativity, break through the constraints of traditional sedans and SUVs, and become a true self.
The evolution of the beauty of design, the trend of luxury car design
In the history of automobiles, if there is a ranking of the golden age of automobile design, then the 70s of the last century is an era that we cannot forget. The Audi 100 Coupé S can be called the "old soul" of that era, pointing out the way forward for Audi and even for the design of cars around the world. And the protagonist of this article, the Audi A7 Sportback, is also inextricably linked to this model.
Why is the Audi 100 Coupé S so important? In the 60s, Mercedes-Benz and BMW were still very conservative in styling. In terms of styling, it was still honestly developing models with traditional sedan structures, unable to break through traditional car design thinking, and did not carry out a drastic reform of the existing vehicle styling architecture at that time. At that time, Audi, under the leadership of Chief Engineer Ludwig Krauss and his team, produced an aesthetic piece that crossed the ages: the Audi 100 Coupé S.
Unlike traditional sedans, the Audi 100 Coupe S is a typical coupe. In the world of sedans, the alternative Audi 100 Coupe S will naturally turn heads on the road. It was thanks to the success of this model that Klaus became famous, eventually becoming head of the design departments of Audi and Volkswagen, and creating several classic products. It is no exaggeration to say that without Audi and Krauss, humans would still be fumbling around the sedan mindset for a long time.
The Audi A7 pioneered the Sportback concept
But in the decades since, for one reason or another, the fastback design of the Audi 100 Coupe S has not been carried over. However, this situation was completely changed in 2010 with the birth of the A7 Sportback.
Before the official launch of the A7 Sportback, Audi was the first to introduce the A5 Sportback in 2009. It's just that the A5 Sportback only has some fastback trend design, not a real inheritance of the Audi 100 Coupe S. The Audi Sportback concept car, which was unveiled later, truly inherited the concept of the Audi 100 Coupe S and carried it forward.
What is the Sportback? Slightly different from the Audi 100 Coupe S, the Sportback is designed with a sloping roofline, a sloping rear window and an integrated boot lid, as well as four frameless doors. The Sportback concept, pioneered by the Audi A7, has been well inherited over the past decade and has become the most distinctive and iconic design of the Audi A7 in the global market.
Building on the success of the concept car, Audi struck while the iron was hot and launched the first-generation Audi A7 Sportback in 2010. With a more slender body and a perfect golden ratio, the A7 Sportback is the face of the Audi family to this day.
The chassis architecture of the first-generation Audi A7 Sportback was based on the Audi A6, but in terms of shape, it adopted a fastback five-door hatchback shape. As soon as it was unveiled, it helped Audi win the title of the most beautiful coupe. From the perspective of positioning, the A7 makes up for the gap between the A6 and A8 executive sedans, giving a better choice for family users who advocate sports.
In October 2017, the second-generation Audi A7 made its world premiere at the new design center at Audi headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany. The new car is built on the MLB Evo platform, but in terms of design style and high-tech equipment, it is on par with the new Audi A8, Audi's flagship sedan. From this point, it can be seen that Audi intends to improve the positioning of the A7 to consolidate or consolidate its position in the luxury coupe market.
On December 12, 2018, the all-new Audi A7 Sportback, positioned as a "smart new luxury C-segment coupe", was officially launched. The recently launched 2024 Audi A7 Sportback is still a facelifted model in the second generation of the Audi A7. The new Audi A7 Sportback will help Audi further expand its market share in the global market of mid- and large-size coupes through further optimisation and upgrades in terms of styling and equipment.
What are the design highlights of the new Audi A7 Sportback?
The body size of the new Audi A7 Sportback is: 4976*1908*1412 (1419)mm, and the wheelbase reaches 2928mm.
The front face of the new Audi A7 Sportback follows the characteristic design of the Audi family, and on the basis of maintaining the iconic flat hexagonal shape of the large-mouth grille design, a new honeycomb Xuanyu/Haoyi grille is added, which effectively widens the visual effect of the whole vehicle and strengthens the coupe attributes of the new car. As for the front bumper, the flat lower grille leads to additional protruding fins, and the large fog lamp area air intakes give people a full combat feeling.
On the side of the body, Audi's classic frameless door design and Sportback coupe lines have been a classic example of imitation by other coupe models.
The rear of the new Audi A7 Sportback is also quite a highlight. It not only continues to use the through-type dynamic taillight cluster, but also adds an electric tailgate and an electric rear wing, and the rear of the vehicle has a high degree of recognition. The rear bumper is complemented by a blacked-out sports package and chrome trim that reinforces the car's sporty attributes while adding a sense of luxury. The exhaust part has also become a major attraction of the new car. While the rear bumper has been deducted from the exposed exhaust design, the new Audi A7 Sportback has been replaced with a continuous chrome strip. The design of the hidden layout makes the vehicle shape more hierarchical.
The design of the headlights has always been Audi's strong point. All models of the 2024 Audi A7 Sportback are equipped with high-definition matrix LED headlights as standard, and can be equipped with high-definition matrix LED headlights with laser headlights as an option, which is at the forefront of the market segment from both the exterior styling and the performance and safety perspective. In addition, the new car also adds a front door welcome light, so that the owner can feel a full sense of travel ceremony.
In terms of body color, the 2024 Audi A7 Sportback retains seven classic colors such as Cyclone Black, Sky Cloud Gray, Legend Black, Glacier White, Foil Silver, Star Gray, and Sky Blue, and adds two more vivid colors, Chitu Red and Ascari Blue, to better meet the personalized needs of users for body colors and maximize the fashion of the Audi A7 Sportback.
Automobile wheels will also affect the shape and aesthetics of the vehicle to a large extent. All models of the 2024 Audi A7 Sportback are equipped with new wheels and are available in three rim options, which are highly recognizable and visually striking. The 40 TFSI Deluxe comes standard with 19-inch 10-spoke Y-shaped Graphite Grey wheels, the 45 TFSI Reserve comes standard with 20-inch 5-spoke Fan-shaped Matte Black Audi Sport wheels, and the 55 TFSI quattro Premium comes standard with 21-inch 5-spoke V-arm trapezoidal carbon black Audi Sport wheels.
I have to say that the new Audi A7 Sportback is not only a car, but also a work of art.
Over the years, the Audi A7 Sportback has always given designers maximum design freedom in terms of styling, regardless of how it has been upgraded, and the engineering team, especially the body engineering and manufacturing teams, has tried their best to cooperate with the designers and put their inspiration into practice.
Behind this insistence is not only Audi's inheritance of history, but also its commitment to creating the most beautiful coupe for users. Behind this insistence, we can see another Audi worthy of our respect in addition to the technological Audi. Coupe fans around the world are also inspired by the A7 Sportback with the greatest enthusiasm for Audi to continue the concept of Sportback and seek to bring an innovation comparable to the Audi 100 Coupé S to fans around the world in the future.