Audi Family Cars

Audi recently unveiled its very own charging lounge concept. It is currently opening the first of them to the public at a very visible location, i.e at the Nuremberg Exhibition Center in Germany.

Audi is testing this new charging model in action for the first time with this pilot location. The fast-charging station features reservable high-power charging bays, along with a lounge area with a vending machine that will serve customers as they put some juice back into their EVs.

Hennessey Performance is celebrating Christmas by delivering Christmas trees as fast as possible. The company’s previous sleigh, a Jeep Trackhawk, managed to deliver it by touching speeds of up 181 mph. But, this time, they want to get it done even faster. So, they’ve upgraded their sleigh to an Audi RS6 Avant that’s been tuned to make 800 reindeer; err., I mean 800 horses. They tried the same with a tuned Porsche 911 Turbo S recently, but it failed. But, the Audi RS6 Avant managed to break the record and is now officially Hennessey’s fastest Christmas tree transporter!

The Audi RS Q8 is the most powerful SUV Audi has to offer, and just a detuned version of the Lamborghini Urus. And, despite being a heavy SUV - 5,291 pounds - it still goes from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds. German tuner Manhart found a way to improve things even further, despite not offering any aerodynamic upgrades.

The Audi SQ5 is already a significant upgrade over the base Q5. For example, customers in the States will get a significant upgrade of an extra 100 horsepower when choosing the SQ5 over the base Q5. In Europe, though, there are a lot of tuners that will find ways to make this difference even bigger. The last one to do so is ABT Sportsline, who is offering an upgrade kit for the SQ5 TDI - both standard and Sportback versions.

The Audi RS3 was recently updated and it is a fantastic proposition overall. Audi even gave it a little more torque this time around. But, it is still not in the leagues of EVs when it comes to straight-line races. The folks at Carwow pit the Audi RS3 against a Tesla Model 3 that was nothing more than a glorified squash. The Model 3 is in a league of its own, and in this race, it proved the same by obliterating the RS3.

Following a previous spotting of a jacked-up A3, a new set of spy shots has essentially confirmed that Audi is, in fact, designing an A3 Allroad. Like the previously spotted model, this one was wearing a lot of camouflage on the lower body, meaty tires, and it clearly has elevated suspension – enough for at least 2-3 inches of extra ground clearance over that standard A3. Although the camo does a good job at concealing what’s underneath, if you look closely, you can make out cladding around the wheel arches, especially in the front. The side skirts don’t appear to be any beefier, but there’s a good chance that are plastic for added protection.

Beyond this, there will likely be more hard plastic all around to protect the car on mild off-road adventures. The rear doesn’t appear to be any different, though the front will likely take on a more rugged appearance. Little else is known about this specific car. It may not even be known as an Allroad as the Citycarver name – previously found on the jacked-up A1 – could also make a comeback. The A1 Citycarver actually had a taller suspension (about two inches), larger tires, some plastic cladding, and an overall more rugged appearance. This A3 could simply be a larger version of that, leaving the Allroad name for larger models.

Mat Watson and his team from ’Carwow’ got four cars to the drag strip for an all-German drag race. The contenders included the Audi RS6, the BMW M5 CS, the Mercedes-AMG E63, and the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid. All the cars feature V-8 engines and two turbochargers. The Porsche goes in the races with a slight advantage, thanks to the electric motor assisting the engine and helping it make the most horses here. But, it’s a double-edged sword as the motor and batteries make it the heaviest. Which car do you think will dominate the races?

It wasn’t long ago that Audi boss, Markus Duesmann, told Germany’s Manager Magazin that the midsize A4 will ditch the internal combustion engine by 2023. As such, the next-gen model that’s seen here (and due in 2023) represents that last fuel-powered generation of the A4 with an electric model due after that. So, will this generation get all the bells and whistles to give it a proper send-off, or will it be business as usual?

Following a fresh batch of Q6 E-Tron spy shots and the first spy shots of the Q8 E-Tron’s facelift, we now have a new set of the facelifted E-Tron doing some winter testing. Much like the last prototype we spotted, this one is wearing. A similar bottom-only camouflage, indicating changes to the front end, side skirts, and lower rear end.

As was the case with the last prototype, the front grille on this prototype features a honeycomb mesh, so we can say with little doubt that this is a production feature. It will be a very nice change from the vertical and horizontal slats of the pre-facelift model. We can’t say much else about it due to the extensive coverage, but it looks as if we will see further changes to the front fascia, and there’s a good chance there will be some minor changes to the front genders as well. The rear lights are still concealed, so you can expect some more change there, too. If you want to know more, be sure to check out the last round of Q8 E-Tron spy shots and learn what we know about the “next-gen” model.

The Audi Q6 E-Tron is in its development stages, which means it will be caught testing often now. It was recently spied in Sweden for a winter testing session, blanketed in heavy camouflage. However, there were some elements we could decipher here.

Audi resurrected its luxury brand name, Horch, with the introduction of the ultra-lux A8 L and the A8 L Horch will be a China-exclusive model, as the market has more cravings for long-wheelbase luxury sedans. It will go head-to-head with the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class which has been the German-marque of ultra-luxury. Does the A8 L Horch have what it takes?

Audi is not backing down from electrification. Just recently we learned that the RS6 Avant E-Tron should launch in 2023 and not even a week after that, the company launched the China-only Q5 E-Tron, basically a rebadged Volkswagen ID.6X. And, while all these new models are cool, we can’t forget about existing models, like the original E-Tron – Audi’s largest electric SUV to date. That’s why the company is hard at work to refresh it for 2022 – a move that will keep it fresh until its successor arrives. That successor, we just learned will be coming in 2026.

In June 2021 ABT was presenting the ‘Johann Abt Signature Edition’” - a model based on the Audi RS6 Avant built to commemorate the company’s 125th anniversary. It was limited to only 64 units, and, because of its 790 horsepower under the hood, it enjoyed huge success. Actually, it was sold out in no time.

At the customers’ request, ABT is offering a successor for it: the RS6-S. The new model was launched at the same time as the RSQ8-S and will be available starting January 2022.

At the beginning of November 2021, I brought you spy shots of a mysterious Audi EV prototype that could have been the Q6 E-Tron or a special, China-only model that would slots somewhere between the Q6 and Q4 E-Tron. As it turns out, it was the China-only Q5 E-Tron, and now it has been fully revealed. As you’d expect it’s based largely on the Audi Concept Shanghai that was reveled back in April 2021, a car that led us to believe that China would be getting something like a fancier ID.6 with an Audi badge.