The All-New Audi A8 Makes A NASA Control Room Look Dated

The Audi A8 is here at last, and the technology on board makes the average space exploration mission look badly-funded and under-equipped.

We’ve already been able to tell you about the flagship saloon’s super-clever new suspension and bona fide foot massager, but now more details have been made public. The standard car is 37mm longer than its predecessor, at 5172mm 4mm narrower at 1945mm and 13mm taller at 1473mm. A long-wheelbase version adds 130mm to the middle of the car and an extra 15mm to the height.

Under the skin you’ll find a heady mix of materials, from aluminium, which makes up 58 per cent of the structure, to high-tensile steels, magnesium and even carbonfibre. The interior is totally redesigned in a leap that looks more like two generations’ worth, focused on two stacked portrait-format screens sort of like the arrangement seen on existing Infiniti models. Many of the controls have been migrated to those, including heating and air movement.

The rest are contained within the Virtual Cockpit we already know and love. We’re not big fans of temperature control on touch-screens, though, so we’ll have to wait and see whether this one works any better than, say, Peugeot’s, which is impossible to use accurately at speed on anything worse than a perfect road surface.

Annoyingly, a lot of the new and most impressive tech is optional, despite a predicted starting price of around £70,000. There are 41 distinct driver assist systems, for example, one of which is the optional Traffic Jam Pilot, which can operate in complete automation in traffic up to 31mph as long as there’s a barrier between it and oncoming traffic. That’s to do with safety in case there’s reason to swerve, suddenly – the car won’t see it.

There will be two engines to begin with; a 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 petrol with 335bhp and a 282bhp diesel. Eight-speed automatic gearboxes and quattro four-wheel drive are standard, while you can pay extra for a sport differential between the rear wheels if you wish. A third engine will be added in 2018: a meaty new 4.0-litre 429bhp V8 TDI that replaces the old 4.2. Eventually, a new 6.0-litre W12 with 585bhp will join the party. Y’know, for bants.

An S8 has been confirmed and will use a 4.0-litre turbocharged V8. It’s the existing 4.0 TFSI engine from the Porsche Panamera Turbo with the dials turned to 542bhp; 22bhp more than the old S8’s. A lower-powered version of the same engine will be sold in the A8 in some markets, with 454bhp.

All versions will be hybrid to some degree. Most will be mild hybrids, where a ‘belt alternator starter’ acts both as starter motor and generator, recouping power from the engine and making for silky engine restarts. It will cut power during deceleration and coasting. A long-wheelbase plug-in hybrid badged e-tron will be the flagship hybrid, with 30-ish miles of electric driving range and optional wireless charging. Expect to see the first new A8s on the road in the autumn.