The limousine market has held up despite the economic downturn and the models available in Europe are now more numerous than ever.
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Audi has just launched a long wheelbase version of its flagship A8 luxury model, 13cm longer than the standard car, and all for the benefit of rear seat passengers who can optionally have reclining ‘relaxation’ seats, complete with footrest and back massage to give real club class comfort.
There is all the luxury equipment included with the standard model including internet connectivity and a sat nav linked to Google Earth to give the driver an actual picture of the terrain outside, overlaid with the route instructions – and it’s not only the route that’s plugged in.
So is the transmission – it also takes instructions from the sat nav on the road ahead selecting gears accordingly.
“The A8 is one of the most joined-up cars on the road in terms of technology,” said Audi product marketing man Mischa Ehlers. “This is our technical flagship and if you look at the engines available it’s remarkable that we are achieving just 176 g/km of CO2 emissions with the three litre diesel.
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By GlobalData“Now we will have the long wheelbase version and we will be pushing this model harder than before.”
The company will be targeting the chauffeur drive fleets where it sees signs of growth after a period of decline. The chauffeur drive market has remained buoyant despite sales of limousines being restricted by a lack of finance from the banks, particularly in Europe.
Mark Bursa, just-auto correspondent and editor of Professional Driver magazine in the UK said: “The sector has survived the downturn and is in remarkably good health. There are a lot of sound businesses but they have been held back by the lack of available finance.
“Consequently limousine fleets are now older and with higher mileages. As finance becomes available again this is a good time to be launching a new model. Lots of carmakers are launching chauffeur programmes with low rate leases.”
Bursa added the Mercedes S-class had been the dominant player in the market but competition was growing with the launch of the redesigned BMW 7 series, Jaguar XJ and now the LWB A8.
He added: “Fuel efficiency is also very important in this market. The non-quattro version of the A8 will be an important car as the diesel is said to return 47mpg. An extra few miles to the gallon is significant when you extrapolate that over an annual mileage of some 30-40,000. It can be a big saving.”
Two wheel drive versions are expected next year, as is a hybrid A8 with emissions reduced reduced to 144g/km.
The LWB A8 is launching with three-and 4.2-litre ‘TDI’ diesels, a supercharged three-litre ‘TFSI’ petrol engine, 4.2-litre petrol and a new 6.3-litre, 500bhp W12 powerplant.
