Production of electricity Audi A8 is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, and it is not clear what, if anything, will follow.
According to the original plan, the A8 was to be replaced in 2027 by two vehicles: an SUV nicknamed Landjet and a sedan called Landyacht. Both should be based on the sports variant of the Volkswagen Group’s new all-electric Scaleable Systems Platform (SSP).
Engineering work on the SSP Sport was led by Porsche, which planned to use the platform as the basis for a new three-row electric SUV codenamed “K1.”
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With electric vehicle sales growth falling short of expectations, particularly at the top of the market, Porsche canceled the K1 at the end of September and will instead develop another three-row SUV with gasoline and plug-in hybrid power. Therefore, the SSP Sport architecture will not be ready for series production until sometime in the 2030s.
With SSP Sport unavailable, Audi will have to make some tough decisions about the next A8. It could be based on the Platform Premium Combustion (PPC), which underpins the latest A6 petrol and plug-in hybrid, or it could use an extended version of the Platform Premium Electric (PPE), which serves as the basis for the Audi A6 E-tron and Q6 E-tron, as well as the Porsche Macan EV and the upcoming Cayenne EV.
The most obvious solution, a facelift and an update of the current A8, has already been ruled out. An Audi spokesperson told Automotive News a refreshed fourth-generation A8 is “not an option” due to the cost of complying with the latest regulations.
Under pressure from employee representatives, Audi should decide on a path for the new A8 by the end of the year. Whatever the Audi board decides, developing the car that replaces the fourth-generation A8 will take time and will leave a gap at the top of Audi’s sedan lineup for at least a few years.
Local sales of the fourth-generation A8 ended earlier this year when Audi Australia withdrew the S8 from our market.
Audi’s large SUVs will now take on the role of the brand’s flagship models, and a new generation of the Q7 is scheduled to come onto the market by the end of 2025.
The original A8 was introduced in 1994 with the bespoke, weight-saving aluminum space frame. The A8 hid its revolutionary engineering behind a handsome, if overly derivative, body that was too reminiscent of a stretched A6.
While the original A8 and its successors never overtook the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series in the sales charts, it did pave the way for the widespread use of aluminum and other lightweight materials to improve fuel economy.
One could argue that the 13th-generation Ford F-150, which debuted in 2015, would not have made the switch to an all-aluminum body without the A8 two decades earlier.
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