Audi has revealed that the new A8 is priced from £69,100 in the UK, and order books for the firm’s all-new Mercedes-Benz S-Class rival are now open, with first deliveries touted for January 2018. The firm has only released the starting price, while confirming that buyers will only be offered two 3.0-litre six-cylinder powertrains - one diesel, one petrol - for now. V8 and W12 versions will arrive on sale in Britain next year. The A8 is 37mm longer than the outgoing model, in both standard form and long-wheelbase A8 L configuration. The wheelbase is slightly longer, too, but the car is also very slightly narrower than the old A8. • Best luxury cars to buy now Audi’s new design language is introduced in the exterior styling, with a more muscular look and a front grille with multiple horizontal lines to make the car look wider. The cabin represents a larger step over the outgoing model, with a cleaner, simpler design made possible by a 10.1-inch screen that’s neatly integrated into the centre of the facia, and a secondary 8.6in display that controls ventilation and heating. Audi's Virtual Cockpit driver display setup is standard on any new A8. 32 The rear cabin gets extra legroom for all passengers and in the long-wheelbase version, the left-hand seat can be turned into a ‘relaxation seat’. Activating the function presents the rear occupant with a heated and massaging footrest. Audi A8: engines Diesel dominates the engine line-up – although every version of the vehicle gets some form of electrification. The stock motor for UK buyers will be an updated version of Audi’s 3.0-litre V6 TDI unit, producing 282bhp, but there will also be a V8 diesel with 429bhp soon after launch. British customers will get a petrol option too, though, in the form of a 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 with 335bhp.

All of the A8’s powerplants will make use of 48-volt electrics to power a mild hybrid system that lets the car coast with no combustion engine at all for up to 40 seconds at a time. It also assists the motor when the car pulls away; Audi claims the system allows the car to travel around 2.5 miles further on every gallon of fuel. • Audi Q8 to join all-new range of Audi luxury flagships in 2018 Audi UK is likely to continue offering the range-topping W12 petrol edition of the car. It’s due later in 2018 in long-wheelbase form only, and featuring a revised version of the twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre W12 motor producing 540bhp and 800Nm. 32 Also due soon after the main model’s launch is the A8 L e-tron quattro, which mixes a 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 petrol engine with an electric motor to offer a combined output of 443bhp and 700Nm of torque. The e-tron’s boot space takes a small hit to accommodate batteries that allow the car to drive up to 30 miles without firing up the combustion engine. The e-tron will be a plug-in hybrid, but Audi will also use it to introduce wireless charging; diagrams on the car’s infotainment system help the driver to position the A8 over a supplied pad, which then rises to minimise the gap to the underbody. The system then recharges at a rate of 3.6kWh.