2018 Audi A7 Sportback (2nd Generation)

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FiestaST

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Unveiling on Thursday.

2018 Audi A7 Sportback to be revealed on Thursday

New luxury liftback model will get Audi's most advanced Virtual Cockpit system

Audi will pull the covers off its next A7 Sportback this Thursday, revealing the model's striking lighting technology and advanced cabin infotainment for the first time.

The Sportback, which has just been previewed in new images after several months of development testing over the summer, will feature new sliding LED lighting at the front and rear, as well as a clean cabin design inspired by the Audi Prologue concept.

As shown by the spotted development cars, the upcoming A7's liftback tail is familiar, but the preview images show sharper details that appear far closer to the concept than any current production model.

Audi designers have been tasked with giving the new model a far more striking appearance than its more inconspicuous predecessor to emphasise the vastly advanced technology featured inside.

To fight off the challenge from rivals such as the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class (both of which have been used as benchmarks for the new A7), Audi will introduce its latest Virtual Cockpit technology with the A7. This will see enhanced digital features integrated into a more cleanly designed dashboard.

Like the 2017 A8 that has just been revealed, the next A7 models will be underpinned by Audi’s MLB Evo platform, which enables a broad selection of powertrain options. The A8 offers a fully autonomous driverless mode, using Audi's piloted driver technology. A version of this technology is expected to feature in top-of-the-range A7s.

Initially, the S7 will be the most potent Sportback available. It will use a twin-turbocharged V6 engine with more than 450bhp, which should enable the car to hit 62mph from rest in around 4.5sec.

To signify its power, the S7 will feature a slightly more aggressive exterior design than the regular A7, with a quad-exit exhaust system and 10-spoke wheels - as featured on the development car below.

Below the S7, the bulk of the A7 range will use a familiar line-up of turbocharged petrol and diesel engines in four-cylinder and six-cylinder layouts. Hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains will form the basis of the most efficient combustion-engined models and the absence of tailpipes on development cars spotted earlier in the year support claims that an all-electric version is under development, too.

Arriving later (likely in 2018) will be the A7's crowning model, the RS7. That car will sit above the S7 and is likely to come with a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 engine producing more than 600bhp - at least 46bhp more than the current version.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/2018-audi-a7-sportback-be-revealed-thursday

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2018 Audi A7 Sportback to be revealed today

New luxury liftback model will get Audi's most advanced Virtual Cockpit system

Audi will pull the covers off its next A7 Sportback later today, revealing the model's striking lighting technology and advanced cabin infotainment for the first time.

The Sportback, which has just been previewed in new images after several months of development testing over the summer, will feature new sliding LED lighting at the front and rear, as well as a clean cabin design inspired by the Audi Prologue concept.

As shown by the spotted development cars, the upcoming A7's liftback tail is familiar, but the preview images show sharper details that appear far closer to the concept than any current production model.

Audi designers have been tasked with giving the new model a far more striking appearance than its more inconspicuous predecessor to emphasise the vastly advanced technology featured inside.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/2018-audi-a7-sportback-be-revealed-today
 
Always loved the look of the A7. Gen 2 looks amazeballs!


Audi A7 Sportback

The Audi A7 Sportback represents the new Audi design language to a great extent and delivers on the design promise made by the prologue studies. The four-door coupe sets standards in the luxury class when it comes to progressiveness. It embodies a new style of Gran Turismo, with dynamic lines, systematic digitalization, a sporty driving experience and a versatile space concept.

Dynamics at their most beautiful: the exterior design

The exterior design of the Audi A7 Sportback is an expression of the new design language that Audi introduced with the prologue study and made its production debut in the new Audi A8. With large surfaces, sharp edges and taut, athletic lines, the A7 signals dynamics and progressiveness from every perspective.

Up front, the Singleframe grille - wider and lower than that of the Audi A8 - the narrow headlights, the boldly contoured air inlets and the flat front end convey at a glance the sportiness of the Gran Turismo. The headlights are available in three versions. With the middle and top equipment lines, the light signature takes up the subject of digitalization: 12 adjacent lighting segments separated by narrow intervening spaces evoke associations with the binary digits 0 and 1. The top version is the HD Matrix LED headlights with Audi laser light.

The Audi A7 Sportback is an athletic sculpture with a long engine hood, long wheelbase and short overhangs. Pronounced contours emphasize the wheels, which measure up to 21 inches in diameter, and reference Audi's quattro genes. These genes determine the proportions of the vehicle's body. The silhouette is defined by the dynamic roofline, which drops sharply toward the rear. Four figures delineate the sporty character of the large coupe: It is 4,969 millimeters (16.3 ft) long, has a wheelbase of 2,926 millimeters (9.6 ft) and is 1,908 millimeters (6.3 ft) wide, but stands only 1,422 millimeters (4.7 ft) high.

As with the previous model, the rear end is tapered like that of a yacht. The long luggage compartment lid terminates in a pronounced, curved lip from which an integrated spoiler extends automatically at 120 km/h (74.6 mph). A flat light strip - a design feature common to all of Audi's top models - joins the rear lights, whose tail lights are made up of 13 vertical segments. When the doors are unlocked and again when they are locked, fast-moving light animations play in the rear lights and in the headlights, highlighting the big coupe's dynamics while standing still. The progressive exterior design of the new Audi A7 Sportback is largely devoid of chrome. The paint range offers a choice of 15 colors, eight of which are new. The optional S line exterior package further hones the look, with modifications to the radiator grille and the front air inlets, the sills and the front and rear diffusers. They are trimmed in gloss black and more strongly sculpted.

https://www.netcarshow.com/audi/2018-a7_sportback/

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New Audi A7 revealed with major tech and refinement upgrades

Audi's rival to the Mercedes-Benz CLS gets a significant update, with fuel-saving technology and rear-wheel steer

The second-generation Audi A7 has been unveiled ahead of its public debut at the Los Angeles motor show in November.

Sporting a sharp new exterior design, the luxury liftback is due to reach the UK during the first quarter of 2018. It comes with a 48V electric system, new engines with mild-hybrid properties for added fuel savings, as well as a steel and aluminium body structure. The BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo and Mercedes-Benz CLS rival gets a reworked chassis featuring four-wheel steering and a raft of digital interior functions as part of an engineering overhaul.

Along with the latest A8, the 2018 A7 represents somewhat of a new start for Audi, following the fallout from parent company Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal. Initially approved for production by Audi boss Rupert Stadler in 2014, the A7 has been developed under three research and development chiefs: Ulrich Hackenberg, Stefan Knirsch and Peter Mertens.

Audi says the A7 has been refined to offer outstanding long-distance-cruise traits, and also says its reveamped interior will boost its appeal. And with just one model planned for production from the outset, the A7 55 TFSI pictured here officially for the first time, it also appears Audi is taking steps to ensure top-notch quality during the initial build phase.

Stylistically, the new A7 continues the theme established with the first-generation model in 2010, but with tauter surfacing and crisper forms. The five-door layout remains; the cabin doors are once again frameless, while the large tailgate hinges from above the rear window to provide unimpeded access to the luggage compartment.

The front end is dominated by the latest evolution of Audi’s single-frame grille, as seen on the recent A8. It is set within a heavily structured front bumper and is bookmarked by angular headlights sporting distinctive LED graphics in one of three designs, which taper back within the leading part of the front wings.

Further back, there are pronounced front wheel arches, a relative shallow six-window glasshouse, heavy swage lines within the lower sections of the doors and a roofline that slopes heavily towards the rear – all in keeping with the original A7.

At the rear, Audi has provided its latest model with an active spoiler element. Integrated into the trailing edge of the tailgate, it deploys at speeds above 75mph to increase downforce on the rear axle for added high-speed stability. The most dominant styling feature is the full width tail-lights treatment: each tail-light receives 13 individual elements, joined by an illuminated light bar that stretches across the rear of the boot lid.

Audi will offer the new A7 with an optional S line styling package from the outset of UK sales. It features a high-gloss-black treatment on the grille insert, front air ducts, sills and rear diffuser.

At 4969mm in length, 1908mm in width and 1422mm in height, the new Audi is 14mm shorter, 3mm wider and 2mm higher than the first-generation A7. Based around the latest evolution of Audi’s MLB platform, it also adopts a wheelbase that is 13mm longer than its predecessor at 2923mm, providing it with a larger footprint that will be shared with the new A6 due in 2018.

The interior of the A7 follows the lead of the latest A8. There is a 12.3in digital instrument display, combined with a 10.1in Multi-Media Infotainment display integrated within the centre of the dashboard facia and an 8.6in display unit mounted lower down at the base of the centre console – both offering standard touch control, with haptic and acoustic feedback qualities.

The adoption of touch-sensitive displays for all the major functions provides the dashboard with a clean and uncluttered look devoid of traditional manual controls. The stubby gearlever, meanwhile, is designed to allow the driver to rest their wrist on the horizontal handle to ease the touch operation of the air conditioning and other functions, according to Audi.

Up front, new seats are claimed to offer added levels of comfort, with buyers able to specify multi-adjustable, customised contour seats with both ventilation and massage functions. The rear can be configured with two individual seats or a two-plus-one layout. Despite the 14mm reduction in the length of the exterior, Audi claims improvements in packaging have liberated an added 21mm of length within the interior and, with it, increased rear leg room.

The 535-litre boot capacity of the original A7 has been retained, although Audi says the luggage compartment has been redesigned for improved utilisation of space. The rear liftback is manually operated, although buyers can choose an optional foot-operated sensor.

Options include Matrix LED headlamps with laser projector units, a head-up display unit, voice control, four sound systems including a Bang & Olufsen unit offering 3D surround-sound, remote parking pilot and, from 2018 onwards, remote garage pilot. The remote garage pilot autonomously manoeuvres the A7 into and out of parking spaces or a garage without the need for a driver to be behind the steering wheel.

That technology is among a number of autonomous driving functions. The new A7 can feature up to five radar sensors, five cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a laser scanner. They are networked by a so-called zFas central driver assistance controller. In total, the new car features 39 driver assistant systems, both as standard and optional.

The second-generation A7 will be launched with just a single engine, although others, including both four and six-cylinder petrol and diesel units, are planned to be added to the line-up as production of the four-door ramps up at Audi’s plant in Neckarsulm, Germany.

The turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol unit comes as standard with a new belt drive alternator, lithium ion battery and 48V electric architecture to provide it with mild hybrid properties. At speeds between 34mph and 99mph, the car can coast with the combustion process idled for added fuel savings on extended periods of trailing throttle.

It also uses a stop/start function that shuts down the engine below 14mph as you roll up to traffic lights. In combination with a front camera, the engine is then restarted as soon as the car ahead begins to move or, alternatively, when the driver activates the throttle.

The successor to the earlier supercharged 3.0-litres V6 offered in the first-generation A7 produces 335bhp and 369lb ft of torque. Drive is channeled through a standard seven-speed S-tronic dual-clutch gearbox and the latest iteration of Audi’s quattro four-wheel-drive system that only activates the rear wheels when it detects added traction is required.

The new engine provides the initial A7 55 TFSI model with a claimed 0-62mph time of 5.3sec and electronically limited top speed of 155mph, with fuel consumption and emissions put at 41.5mpg and 154g/km respectively.

Audi is already talking up the dynamic qualities of the new A7, which follows the trend towards the adoption of four-wheel steering – or dynamic-all-wheel-steering, as Audi prefers to call it.

At speeds below 37mph, the rear wheels steer in the opposite direction to those at the front in a bid to imbue the new Audi with added low-speed manoeuvrability and a claimed 1.1m reduction in the turning circle compared with its predecessor. Above 37mph, the rear wheels steer in the same direction as those at the front, which Audi says contributes to increased straight-line stability and improves high-speed lane-change properties.

In other changes, Audi says the suspension has been developed from scratch and claims it offers greater levels of feedback. Buyers can choose between four set-ups: conventional steel springs, a sport suspension that lowers the ride height by 10mm, electronically controlled damping and a self-leveling air suspension.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-audi-a7-revealed-major-tech-and-refinement-upgrades
 
Audi have the best looking headlights on the road right now.
 
Wow such an amazing vehicle, the new A6 should be following suit too
 
I am really liking the new designs. Wasn't a big fan of the previous model A7 but this looks amazing!

Cant wait to see what the nee A6 will look like.
 
Say hello to the new-generation Audi A7 Sportback!

Audi has finally taken the wraps off its second-generation A7 Sportback, which like the new A8 features Ingolstadt’s latest design language and heaps of technology.

The new model measures 4 969 mm long (precisely the same as before), 1 908 mm wide and 1 422 mm high, with a wheelbase of 2 926 mm (the latter up 12 mm).

As before, the Audi A7 Sportback features a long bonnet and short overhangs, along with a roofline that drops sharply toward the rear. Round back, you’ll find a curved lip from which an integrated spoiler extends automatically at speeds above 120 km/h. A flat light strip joins the rear lights, each made up of 13 vertical segments. Various headlamp options will also be available, each with a distinct lighting signature.

So, what’s happening under that bonnet? Well, rather interestingly, all engines used in the new A7 Sportback will come standard with a new mild hybrid system. With the V6 engine set to be introduced at launch, this comes in the form of a 48-volt primary electrical system.

A belt alternator starter works together with a lithium-ion battery and achieves a “recuperation performance” of up to 12 kW when braking. Audi says that at speeds between 55 and 160 km/h, its new four-door model can coast in freewheeling mode with the engine deactivated.

Audi A7 Sportback The new Audi A7 Sportback will initially launch with a 3,0-litre V6 TFSI producing 250 kW and 500 N.m and allowing a sprint from zero to 100 km/h in a claimed 5,3 seconds (with a top speed of 250 km/h). This six-cylinder engine will be mated to a seven-speed S tronic transmission, while Audi says the standard quattro drivetrain will “activate rear-wheel drive as needed”.

Audi says additional six- and four-cylinder engines, both in petrol and diesel flavours, will follow shortly after A7 Sportback production kicks off in Neckarsulm.

Inside, you’ll notice that the centre console and its 10,1-inch upper display are angled towards the driver, and the brand’s nifty virtual cockpit with its 12,3-inch display is present and correct. Mounted on the asymmetric console of the centre tunnel, an 8,6-inch lower display provides access to the climate control system, comfort functions and text input.

Under the skin, Audi says customers will be able to choose between four suspension setups: a conventional steel spring suspension, the sport suspension that lowers ride height by 10 mm, electronically controlled damping and the self-levelling adaptive air suspension. Dynamic all-wheel-steering will also be offered, along with all manner of Audi AI and driver assistance systems

http://www.carmag.co.za/news_post/say-hello-to-the-new-generation-audi-a7-sportback/
 
i took my daughter to her matric dance in an A7 Sportback about 2 weeks ago
it was with a heavy heart that i had to return it the next day.... lovely car. i can only imagine what this one will feel like
 
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