With the online reveal of the facelifted A8 scheduled for August 21 ahead of its real-life premiere at the Frankfurt Auto Show, Audi has released official sketches of the car and some information about the new revolutionary LED turn signal lights.
Audi’s facelifts are not usually radical, and the design sketches show the A8 will be no exception. However, to keep up with the all-new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Audi had to give the A8 a consistent makeover, and much of it is related to the new Matrix LED headlights.
While the shape of the headlamps is more or less the same as on the current model, the lighting technology is radically different. The LED high-beam headlights are split into numerous individual, small diodes working together with lenses or reflectors connected in series. Depending on the conditions, they are activated and deactivated or dimmed individually, supplying high-precision illumination.
The turn signals are also innovative, as they consist of lighting elements that illuminate in a defined sequence – 18 LEDs in the headlights and 24 LEDs in the taillights. The turning direction is indicated dynamically by light-emitting diodes that light up progressively, as you can see demonstrated in the video below.
Design-wise, the bumpers appear to be slightly redesigned, with the front grille no longer reaching the lowest point of the bumper. At the rear, the taillights seem to be slimmer and split in half by a horizontal chrome bar that spans from one tail lamp to the other.
The sketches also show wide rectangular exhaust tips instead of round ones – but we don’t know whether they will be a standard feature or reserved only to high-end models.
By Dan Mihalascu
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