Audi Brand Experience, Singapore: Audi’s roadmap for the future

In a first of its kind event for the Asia Pacific region, the Audi Brand Experience in Singapore showcased over 30 cars offering a clear road map to the German brand’s future. It’s clear that the brand is moving away from fossil fuels and the most interesting car of the mini-motorshow was the Elaine. First shown at Shanghai in 2017, it is  capable of Level 4 autonomy which means no human input is necessary in specially demarcated areas such as parking garages. Elaine can go to an electronic charging post, go to the car wash on her own, or can park herself without any human intervention. The onboard Personal Intelligent Assistant (PIA) also learns what you do with the car most often and helps to automate those tasks as needed, such as navigation, music, climate control, and more.

The fully autonomous Audi Aicon offers a glimpse into the future of premium motoring. It’s just as sleek-looking inside as it is outside – there are no steering wheels or pedals and instead you just lounge in a first class cabin. The Aicon combines innovations relating to the drivetrain, suspension, digitalisation and sustainability and is designed for purely electric operation. Audi claims it should be able to cover between 700 and 800 kilometres on a single charge.

Check out our test drive review of the Audi A6 here

The most dynamic vehicle on display was the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo concept. As part of the Playstation game Gran Turismo’s ‘Vision’ collaboration with car brands, manufacturers made cars that were drivable in game, and then brought them to life as physical, real concept cars.The Vision GT concept has twin rear motors and a front motor for a total of 804bhp, weighs 1,450kg and is capable of 0-100kmph in just 2.5 seconds.

We also got our first look at the Audi e-tron, Audi’s first all-electric production SUV. The new e-tron has a 400km real world range and the ability to recharge up to 80 per cent from zero in just 30 minutes from a 150kW fast charger. It will go on sale in European and North American markets by 2019 and Audi confirmed that Singapore would be one of the first Asian markets with the launch scheduled for 2019. Audi has already indicated that the e-tron is ready to launch in India too and may go on sale sometime in 2019 or 2020. The production version of the e-tron is the first of the Roadmap E initiative, with which the company claims it will electrify its complete lineup by 2025.

The event in Singapore also showcased the new lineup of vehicles that will go on sale in India very soon, the new A6, A7, A8L and Q8. It was obviously the latter that got the lion’s share of the limelight, the Q8 slotting in at the very top of Audi’s Q range of SUVs. It’s similar to the current Q7 mechanically, but has more obvious coupe-touch points, such as the more slender roofline, a lower and wider stance, a shapely rear end with a full-width light bar and black insert referencing the original Audi quattro.

The other significant car was the new A6, something Audi needs to bring to India soon as its main rivals – the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class have been steaming ahead with their new models. The A6 looked loaded with features and technology, something Audi is very good at, and we hope the wait (in India) has been for something radical, perhaps a long-wheelbase A6 lifted from China much in the same vein as the LWB E-Class? While sporty-inclined customers can be kept happy with the A7, taking a leaf out of BMW’s 5 Series and 6 GT playbook.

The A8L too looked classy, especially with that one piece tail light giving it a very distinct signature and very modern look. The A8 will feature the Audi AI traffic jam pilot that takes charge of driving in slow-moving traffic at up to 60kmph on freeways and highways where a physical barrier separates the two carriageways. Audi A8 is the first production automobile to permit conditional automated driving on public roads with Level 3 autonomy, where drivers will be able to completely turn over the task of driving in certain situations.

Clearly Audi have a lot on their plate and 2019 will be a big year for the brand in India with the A8L, eighth-generation A6, new Q8, the all-electric e-tron, maybe even the Q2 and more niche models like the A7 and sporty RS cars.