Audi have officially announced the next model in their flagship executive class model, the stunning A6. The new Audi A6 arrives in Europe early in 2011, with a South African release date hopefully soon after. The new A6 comes with a number of different engine options and subtle tweaks, good news all-round though is that the vehicle is up to 19% more fuel efficient than its predecessor.

The engine options available at release will include 2 gasoline as well as 3 TDI engines, which will range from 130 kW (177hp) to 220 kW (300hp). They will also come with Start/Stop technology as well as energy recovery systems and thermal management concept. The most powerful Gasoline engine in the new A6 range is the 3.0 TFSI which delivers 220 kW (300hp) of power and completes 0-100km/h in just 5.5 seconds, with a governed top speed of 250km/h. As to be expected though, the fuel consumption in this option is not as impressive, and comes in at 8.2 litres per 100km.

Interestingly enough, Audi will be releasing the A6 in a hybrid model; this will only come at a later stage though. It will produce 180 kW (245 hp) from its’ 2.0 TFSI in addition to the electric motor, which allows it to reach speeds up to 100km/h on just the electric motor. Both engines naturally kick in when accelerating quickly to increase performance.

Look out for local prices and release dates as they become available.

Source: Audi

Audi’s A7 Sportback is the latest offering from the legendary German auto-powerhouse. Audi describe the A7 as combining the “Sporty elegance of a coupe, the comfort of a sedan and the practicality of a station wagon”. Audi could have added “the rear-end of something quite bizarre” but it seems to fit well with the overall style of the car and it’s growing on me.

Under the hood the Audi A7 will initially be released with 4 different V6 engines, 2 petrol and 2 TDI. The highest range engine in the lineup will generate 220kW (300hp) which is rather juicy. The 3.0 TDI generates 150kW (204hp) and has some impressive efficiency stats. With an average fuel consumption of just 5.3 liters per 100km and a CO2 emission rating of 139g per km, not too bad for it’s class.

As can be expected the Audi A7 comes with a host of safety systems and driver assists, including: Navigation system, pre-sense system, and lane assist. However, without doubt the most useful new driver assist feature comes in the form of a Park assist system. This system takes control of the steering when parallel parking, and does it for you. I can’t think of a more useful device to have on a new car.

Another useful component is the MMI operating system, control panel, offering the driver a host of functionality. Most impressive being the option for any important information to be projected in the form of a heads up display onto the windshield, so the driver never needs to take their eyes off the road.

The new Audi A7 Sportback is expected to hit dealerships in Europe in their fall, with an estimated base price tag of 51 600 Euros. We await further details for the South African release.

Source: Audi

Audi’s main focus with this technology and development is to lower CO2 emissions an increase fuel economy. For a change though its not entirely directed at just their vehicles. Audi are experimenting and developing technologies to be installed into traffic lights around town, these traffic lights will then be able to communicate with your car, the ultimate goal is so reduce co2 emissions and to reduce fuel consumption but how will it all work?

What Audi found during their studies was that when a car comes to a stop at a red robot and then accelerates off again when the light is green, the car has just used 0.02 liters of fuel. Their aim with these studies and new technologies is to reduce this entirely, if possible. They kitted out various Audi cars with this heads up display unit which receives information from the traffic lights regarding when the light is going to turn green. It then automatically suggests the ideal speed that the driver should go, in order for the light to be green when the driver arrives at the light.

Just how much of an effect will this have in the long run? If the technology existed in every traffic light in Germany, Audi say that approximately 900 million liters of fuel will be saved per year. This technology works in conjunction with many of the new start-stop functions that are built into cars to further reduce fuel consumption at red traffic lights, further increasing their reductions.

Further added to this technology is a red light warning, that alerts the driver if they are driving through the traffic light when it is red, with the hope that the number of drivers jumping red lights is reduced. There are some additional features as well, which will attempt to provide information on traffic jams and the like but we will have to see just how well these features turn out.

Source: Audi

Advanced sales of the new Audi A1 have begun, unfortunately the pre-orders are only open to European buyers at the moment. The good news though is the price seems very reasonable, with the price starting at just 15 800 Euros, roughly R151 600. Which for an Audi is not too bad at all. There will no doubt be import costs and the like, so it will likely be more expensive in South Africa but thats something we have come to expect.

The aim of the A1 is to target a completely new Audi audience, as this is Audi’s first venture into the compact car segment. It remains to be seen just how successful the A1 will be, but there definitely seems to be a trend around the world focusing on smaller, cheaper and more economical cars. As seen by the popularity of the Volkswagen Polo and Ford Fiesta. Audi notes that of the initial 100 000 or so people that signed up to be notified of the advanced sales, 90% of them have never owned an Audi. So their plan in theory is working.

The Audi A1 officially goes into production on the 11th May and 50 000 units are expected to be produced by the end of the year.

Source: Audi.

As seen in previous months, the trend of increasing car sales remains consistent. Many car manufactures are seeing massive increases in sales as compared to the same month in 2009. While 2009 was obviously a very difficult year for all consumers, not just in the motor industry, with the difficulties of the recession effecting many industries. It is still a welcome sight to see some of the well known brands showing large sales figures and a reviving industry.

Mercedes Benz

As one of the major players in the car industry world wide, Mercedes-Benz has once again showed impressive sales figures for the previous month. Compared to the April 2009 figures, Merc have shown a 21% increase in sales in the USA. The front-runner for Mercedes was the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which is noted as being a gateway to the Merc brand for younger and first time buyers.

Audi

Not to be out-done in the US market, Audi have themselves shown a substantial increase in sales compared to the same month of 2009. Audi increased their sales figures by a massive 33%, this was largely thanks to a rise in popularity of the Audi Q5 and the Audi A5 Cabriolet. Further adding to the strong figures is the Audi A3 which has increased in popularity since the TDI version was named the 2010 Green car of the year.

Volkswagen

As always seems to be the case, whatever the other top German car makers can do, VW can do better. Volkswagen’s US sales figures came out at a staggering 42% increase compared to the same month in 2009. Along with these amazing figures, Volkswagen has also noted its 10th consecutive month of increased growth, which is a truly impressive statistic and it is clear that VW is doing something right, if not many things. For VW it wasn’t one or two particular models that showed impressive increases in sales but rather almost all of them, which combined to reach this massive overall growth.

Source: VW, Merc, Audi

As in the first movie, Robert Downey Jr’s character of Iron Man drives an Audi. This time around though he is in the sporting new Audi R8 Spyder. With the character of Tony Stark being a flamboyant playboy, he needed a car that would fit his image and style and yet also provide the technology and performance that he would naturally be accustomed to as a brilliant scientist. The R8 Spyder was a perfect match, and throughout the movie the character of Tony Stark is seen behind the wheel of this Audi supercar.

Branding in movies is nothing new for some of the top car manufacturers and is becoming more and more common. The massive exposure and positive association that these car brands get from major Hollywood movies is huge. Possibly the most prominent example being that of the James Bond movies and the various cars that the character has driven. From Aston Martin cars in the early versions, to BMW cars in the Pierce Brosnan era, all the way around back to Aston Martin in the latest films in the series.

Its great to see such major car brands associating with big Hollywood movies, it can only be positive for both brands as they both garner huge exposure.

Source: Audi.

There seems to have been a trend of late where the big car brands have accompanied the release of one of their new models with an Iphone game. This was done previously by Volkswagen with their Scirocco game which was launched when the car came onto the market. These games provide great publicity for the brand and are impressive forward-thinking new channels of advertising.

Whats really nice about these kind of games is that they are free to download from the Itunes store. While there are a ton of free apps already available on the Itunes store, they are usually quite simple and have not had much development go into them. This is where the Big car brands games come in. They obviously have huge budgets for advertising and can supplement the development costs quite easily from the exposure these games generate.

The new Audi A1 game is no exception. The game comes with great soundtracks which change depending on the level. The driver needs to drive through these various levels, collecting extra points as they go. There will also be a highscore table accessible online and you will be able to share your scores through Facebook and Twitter. Also included in the game, as one would expect, is the option to subscribe to Audi’s newsletter, to further increase their exposure.

Source Audi

The RS 5 Coupe adds yet another high performance offering from Audi, although the RS 5 has a slight focus on fuel efficiency, which is not always the case with high performance cars.

The RS 5′s V8 engine displaces 4,163 cc with the 4.2 FSI delivering 331kw (450hp). With all performance cars, the most important spec is the 0-100km and the Audi RS 5 Coupe’ clocks in at just 4.6 seconds. The top speed comes in at 250km/h but Audi say they can increase the speed to 280km/h on request.

As far as economy goes, the RS 5 consumes just 10.8 litres of fuel per 100km which is less than its competitors in the same class. This is helped by the 7 speed S-tronic which allows the driver to change gears using the paddles on the steering wheel, or by using the selector lever or finally by enabling the dual clutch transmission shift which will change gears automatically.

The RS 5 Coupe comes standard with 19 inch wheels, which, like all RS models are powered by Quatro permanent all wheel drive. Also with many performance models, the ESP stabilization can be completely deactivated or set to sport mode.

Source: Audi