Audi finally unveiled its competitor for the medium segment: the new generation A4. Set to continue its battle with the new BMW 3 Series facelift and the Mercedes C-Class, the 2016 Audi A4 was officially unveiled during a special event in Ingolstadt. The public debut is scheduled for this autumn, during Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
Compared with the previous model, the car’s dimensions have grown but its weight has been reduced significantly – by up to 120 kilograms, depending on the engine. The body of the new Audi models is one of the lightest in its class thanks to an intelligent material mix and lightweight construction. Audi also ensures its clients will enjoy good NVH levels.
At 4.73 meters (15.5 ft) long and with a wheelbase of 2.82 meters (9.3 ft), the new A4 promise to be more spacious and with a bigger boot. The luggage compartment of the new A4 Avant offers basic storage space of 505 liters, which is the most of any premium model in this class. With the rear seats folded down and loaded to the roof, a volume of 1,510 liters is available. The electric luggage compartment cover and electric tailgate are standard equipment. An optional extra is sensor control for opening and closing the tailgate.
The new Audi A4 and A4 Avant will be launched in Germany with seven engines, three TFSI and four TDI. Their power output has increased significantly and ranges from 150 hp to 272 hp, but fuel consumption has been reduced by up to 21 percent. The A4 2.0 TDI ultra has fuel consumption of just 3.7 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers (63.6 US mpg) and CO2 emissions of just 95 grams per kilometer (152.9 grams per mile). The figures for the corresponding Avant model are 3.8 l/100 km and 99 g/km CO2 (61.9 US mpg and 159.3 g/mi).
Important upgrades also for the gasoline units. The 2.0 TFSI ultra with 190 hp uses an absolutely new combustion method that makes it especially efficient and allows fuel consumption of 4.8 liters per 100 km (49 US mpg) and CO2 emissions of 109 g/km (175.4 g/mi); the figures for the corresponding Avant model are 5.0 l/100 km and 114 g/km CO2 (47 US mpg and 183.5 g/mi). During the model lifecycle, a g-tron version will be launched which can use natural gas or the sustainably produced Audi e-gas as fuel.
The powertrain and the chassis of the new Audi A4 and A4 Avant have been completely redeveloped. The six-gear manual transmission, the seven-gear S tronic (now also available for front-wheel drive) and the eight-stage tiptronic have been redesigned; the automatic transmissions now offer a fuel-saving freewheeling function. Wheel-selective torque control supplements the work of the front-wheel drive and the quattro drive.
For the most powerful TDI, Audi will offer the sport differential on the rear axle as an option starting in 2016.
As most of the contemporary cars, the new 2016 Audi A4 comes with important safety systems. The predictive efficiency assistant helps drivers to save fuel, Audi active lane assist helps them to stay in lane and the Stop&Go adaptive cruise control including traffic-jam assist eases driving in slow-moving traffic.
One special feature of traffic-jam assist is its control strategy. It takes into account a large number of parameters such as road markings and the traffic ahead. Some more innovations are parking assist, rear cross-traffic assist, exit warning, collision avoidance assist, turn assist and the Audi pre-sense systems. Camera-based traffic-sign recognition is also available.
Inside the new A4, Audi installed the already popular virtual cockpit, a fully digital combination instrument, features a 12.3-inch LCD screen that displays the most important information in brilliant high-resolution graphics, with great detail. The MMI control concept in the center console is also a newly designed feature and acts as the main control element.
”The top-end infotainment system, MMI Navigation plus with MMI touch and a large 8.3-inch monitor, has a touchpad in the rotary controller to zoom in and out and to enter characters. The entire MMI control logic is similar to that of a smartphone and includes an intelligent free-text search function. The new, more natural, voice-control system also understands input in normal everyday language, such as "I want to call Peter Miller."
If customers order a car with MMI Navigation plus, they automatically receive the Audi connect hardware module, which connects the A4 and A4 Avant with the Internet via the high-speed LTE network. Passengers can surf the Internet and send and receive e-mail with their mobile devices via a Wi-Fi hotspot while the driver can use the tailored services of Audi connect.
The smartphone interface integrates iOS and Android mobile phones into an environment developed especially for this purpose – Audi MMI. The Audi phone box connects smartphones to the on-board antenna and charges them inductively according to the Qi standard. For discerning hi-fi fans, the Bang & Olufsen Sound System with innovative 3D sound is available, which introduces the additional dimension of height. The new Audi tablet can also be used as flexible rear seat entertainment.
