News, Trends & Lanuches

Audi has just revealed the next-generation A6 sedan, and it’s turning heads with its sleek new look and exciting upgrades. Taking cues from the stylish A7, the new A6 features a more refined shape and better aerodynamics.

The latest A6 boasts a drag coefficient of just 0.23, which is the best for any Audi sedan with a traditional internal combustion engine!

The launch is a testament to Audi’s commitment to blending the sophisticated charm of a sedan with the latest design language and cutting-edge technology.

In India, the ‘most aerodynamic Audi sedan ever’ is expected to be launched by the end of 2025 or next year.

Now, let’s get in the driving seat and take a closer look at this sleek and stylish new Audi!

 

The 2025 Audi A6: Key Specifications  

The 2025 Audi A6 makes a strong statement with its high-tech, luxurious interior, which, of course, is an area where Audi has always excelled.

However, the new A6 feels more like an executive lounge on wheels. Thanks to its futuristic digital interfaces, elegant ambient lighting, and haptic-feedback controls.

But hey, there’s more. So, without further ado, let’s explore:

 

New Audi A6: Dimensions and Design 

• Compared to its predecessor, the new Audi A6 is 60mm longer, stretching to 4,990 mm in length. 

 

• While the wheel options range from 19 to 23 inches, the new Audi A6’s 2,927 mm wheelbase ensures rear passenger comfort and enhanced cabin space. 

 

Powertrain and Performance

Suiting different driving preferences, the new Audi A6 offers a diverse engine lineup. 

 

• The 2.0L TDI diesel variant with 48V mild-hybrid tech offers 204 bhp and 340 Nm of torque. 

 

• Then comes the 3.0L V6 mild-hybrid petrol engine with Quattro all-wheel-drive, which churns out 357 bhp and 550 nm torque. This super performer boasts a top speed of 249 km/h and goes from 0 to 100 km/h in just 7 seconds. 

 

• The 2.0L turbo-petrol engine, offering 198 bhp and 339 Nm torque, is front-wheel drive – ideal for those concerned with urban mobility. 

 

2025 Audi A6: Interior and Tech 

 

• This new Audi sedan comes with the 3D Bang & Olufsen sound system with the option of up to 20 speakers, making it a delight for those who love some music on the wheel (and who doesn’t, right?).  

 

• The newly unveiled Audi A6 sedan boasts not one, not two, but three high-tech displays. These include the 11.9-inch digital instrument cluster, a 14.5-inch central infotainment screen, and an optional 10.9-inch front passenger display. 

 

• A panoramic sunroof, 4-zone climate control, and an air quality package add to the ‘luxe factor’ of this sleek Audi sedan. 

 

• Sound insulation inside the A6 Sedan has been improved by up to 30 per cent compared to its predecessor, and this increases driving comfort.

 

New Audi A6 Sedan: How does it feel on the wheel?  

• The 2025 Audi A6 is built on the Premium Platform Combustion (PPC). 

 

• The diesel variant offers a Quattro sport differential, while adaptive air suspension and all-wheel steering are optional. These features ensure seamless driving dynamics and confidence across different terrains. 

 

The cabin of the Audi A6 sedan remains hushed and whisper-silent with its enhanced sound insulation.

Moreover, it offers a 492-litre boot with the Avant station wagon taking it to 503 litres. However, it can be expanded to 1,534 litres when the rear seats are down.

However, we’ll have to wait for this new Audi sedan to be launched in India to know which features will be made available here.

Having said that, Audi has been super-active in recent times in both global and Indian markets, and there’s more to come.

Let’s explore how things are panning out to be for ‘the four rings’ in the coming years.

 

Make Way for Audi: Global Market Expectations 

In the global market, Audi has reiterated its commitment to sustainable mobility repeatedly over recent years. By the year 2027, Audi plans to have a fully electric vehicle in all of its segments.

The global launch of the Audi Q6 e-Tron (and the much-awaited 2025/26 India launch) was a testament to the brand’s goal of becoming the global leader in sustainable mobility.

However, the next few years will not be limited to just EVs for Audi. As Audi AG CEO Gernot Döllner announced, the company plans to launch up to 20 new models by the end of 2025.

The focus in 2025 is to renew the A6 and the Q3 but there’s more to come and fans of the German Automaker worldwide can expect a few surprises.

 

Indian Market Performance & Expectations

In the Indian luxury car market, Audi recorded a stellar performance in 2023. With an impressive 89% sales growth, ‘The Four Rings’ recorded their best year since 2015 during that year.

However, 2024 was not as impressive for the brand, with a slight decline in sales. But that hasn’t killed the optimism for Audi as they have predicted an 8-10% sales growth in India in 2025.   

The German company’s optimism has a lot to do with the introduction of new models across segments. Having already launched the Audi Q7 and Audi Q8 facelifts, the company is also expected to launch the Audi Q6 e-Tron in India somewhere between 2025 and 2026.

The latter will strengthen Audi’s presence in the luxury EV market in India. 

In addition to that, the company is also investing heavily in its pre-owned car segment, Audi Approved Plus.

That’s because this segment has seen robust growth recently, with a 25% growth in sales between January 2024 and March 2024.

 

Find Your Favourite Audi at Motozite  

The Indian market has been responding positively to pre-owned luxury cars for the last few years.

And why wouldn’t they? Buying a pre-owned luxury car is a superb idea, especially for first-time buyers. 

At Motozite, we offer a range of pre-owned luxury cars, including your favourite Audi models, too.

So, if you were thrilled by the launch of the new Audi A6 sedan and want to try your hand at a pre-owned Audi, we have you covered. 

Semiconductors: A word that has been in news for some time now; and more than just being in the news, they are affecting the automobile industry on a large scale. The idea is to understand how the whole semiconductor crisis has been impacting the production of the entire automobile industry.

Semiconductors or chips (in common language) are a crucial element in the manufacturing of consumer electronics. In cars, these are needed for everything, from entertainment systems to power steering. The supply crunch and shortage of semiconductor chips has forced car manufacturers to cut production and delivery targets. This has led to a number of profit warnings.

In the simplest terms, the current semiconductor chip shortage is due to a strong demand and limited supply. This stems from the COVID-19 lockdown in the second quarter (Q2) of 2020, when demand for work-from-home technology increased exponentially. The whole shortage has been impacting different manufacturers throughout, for instance, production of laptops, tablets, smartphones and other electronic devices has been impacted by the shortage of semiconductors. During a post-earnings call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook had said that “supply constraints will hurt sales of iPads and iPhones. Cook said the shortage is not in high-powered processors, but “legacy nodes,” or chips that perform functions like driving displays or decoding audio, which can be manufactured using older equipment. Same goes for the gaming consoles, as, despite high demand, PS5 is hard to find on store shelves or e-commerce websites, whereas PS4 was available in abundance during its first year on sale. This indeed adds to the whole idea of how important is the semiconductor industry for the electronics manufacturers.

As the demand grew, the automakers found themselves competing for the semiconductor capacity located in the Asian foundries, which paved the way to this new condition that has been affecting the industry since.

Present scenario

Let’s figure out the whole story in a rather comprehensive way: The car companies had to delay or cancel the orders during the first lockdown, but as production ramped up again, towards the end of 2020, there was limited semiconductor supply available. This was compounded by an increase in demand at the higher end of the autos market:

We can say that the COVID-19 pandemic has been the catalyst, but structural changes were also a major factor. The auto industry is changing with a major shift towards more tech oriented features and electric vehicles in recent times, which requires more chips, causing further strain on an already stretched industry.

To have a moment of relief, the number of semiconductor companies have increased throughout. As study by McKinsey, produced the data based on a range of macroeconomic assumptions suggesting the industry’s aggregate annual growth could average from 6 to 8 percent a year up to 2030. Some governments are also upping their investment in semiconductor technology to lessen the impact of global supply-chain disruptions. In India itself, there has been a massive amount of investment pool driven by the government itself, such as, the Indian government has approved a Rs 76,000-crore India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) to showcase its commitment to establishing a stronghold in the $533 billion semiconductor market. Seems like a perfect alternative for the shortage, yet the longevity of the problem still remains.

Seeing the present scenario, the chip shortage is unlikely to be completely resolved in the near future, partly because of the complexities of the semiconductor production process, which is a major case of concern for now. Switching to a different manufacturer also might not be a viable option, as switching typically adds another year or more because the chip’s design requires alterations to match the specific manufacturing process of a new partner. Moreover, some chips can contain manufacturer-specific intellectual property that may require alterations or licensing, adding to further increase the whole problems.

It is a known fact that the chip shortage is affecting many industries; however, the automotive sector has some unique characteristics that exacerbate the problem. For instance, many OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers follow a ‘just in time’ manufacturing strategy in which they order semiconductors and other vehicle components close to production to optimize inventory costs, which has, in turn, caused a new kind of problems for them. In the long run, it has been adding to the disruption of the vehicles sales and manufacturing. Other companies in the industry that do not follow a just-in-time ordering approach were in a better position, especially since some had secured extra capacity when automotive players cancelled or reduced their orders, creating a brief opportunity for the ones withholding the semiconductors.

While considering the demand side, the automotive companies have much more complex and personalised products than the companies in other industries, creating an immediate limitation of resources. In consequence, they may have more difficulty predicting their semiconductor needs, and demand may fluctuate. To top it all, the automotive industry needs to follow stringent safety requirements that necessitate the use of specifically validated semiconductors and defined production facilities along the complete value chain. This calls for some bigger actions to be taken while processing the decrease in the supply of semiconductors.

A steep climb ahead

To create an ample future for the manufacturing and supply of semiconductors, the geopolitical picture may significantly increase the global capacity to produce advanced chips. Legislation making its way through the US Senate would provide $52 billion in subsidies to increase the domestic chip production, which can provide for a greater mileage in terms of production and availability of the semiconductors. The US share of global chip production has fallen from 37 percent in the 1980s to 12 percent today. While chip shortages have been cited by those boosting subsidies, much of the money would go to reshoring production of advanced chips, draining a huge chunk of money in the process. As a matter of fact, semiconductor manufacturing giant Intel has expressed interest in setting up a new plant in India and is likely to apply for incentives under the new scheme to promote manufacturing for development of a sustainable semiconductor and display ecosystem. This could be a great leap into the future of semiconductor manufacturing for India.

How is the industry dealing with it?

Let’s see how the brands are coping up with this supply-and-demand situation of the semiconductors.

According to the J.P. Morgan’s report from December 2021, BMW expects chip supply to remain tight for another 6-12 months, with supply chain constraints lasting well into 2022, which seems like a well thought-out expectation. The Toyota Motor Corporation, on the other hand, announced a 40% cut in car and truck production around the world in October last year, due to the complications from a shortage of computer chips and COVID-19 restrictions affecting the production of parts in Southeast Asia. Honda has also said its production lines in Japan were operating at about 40% of its initial plan for the August-September 2021 period, while in October, the group was running 30% below previous plans, clearly demonstrating the whole crisis situation in the automobile industry.

Hopeful about the future

We all love our vehicles, be it as a means of transportation or a bundle of joy; and with the ongoing semiconductor shortage exceeding the expected time period, there might be a delay in production and sales of our beloved four wheels. With the world trying to find alternatives and improve the structural inadequacies, we are sure to figure out a way and get the manufacturing and sales of vehicles back to the usual or maybe even more than what we expect.

Cover Photo by Vishnu Mohanan on Unsplash

Cars: A four letter word that creates a special space in all the people who have at least once in a lifetime driven and experienced the sheer fun and thrill of being inside it. We all love our vehicles – be it for daily commute, an off-road beast or, for that matter, a luxurious cruising machine, they all have their own charm.

There has been a heated debate on the repercussions of having these automobiles running on fossil fuels and the emission that is caused by them. For a long period of time, smart people around the world are cumulatively trying to figure out a better fueling method for our beloved transportation. As we know, in the long run, this could be a real game changer for the entire automobile industry.

Electric vehicles have been on the road to being adapted as one of the most promising automotive solutions which the future beholds. The electric vehicles in India appear to be gaining traction supported by various initiatives taken by central and state governments. The change is being driven by 2W and 3W segment whereas adoption in the passenger cars is gradually catching up. Recently, leading Indian car manufacturers have announced their plans to shift towards the e-mobility. 2W segment on the other hand is already very action-packed with many leading companies and EV start-ups in India manufacturing electric 2W to push the idea of having an electric-powered automobile.

As we are already on the topic of EVs, we have to be very certain about the source of electricity. If India is trying to shift to electric vehicles, then we have to understand that producing electricity from coal and the issue of pollution will pertain, which is, in a way, a conundrum itself. Putting things into perspective, the right way to go about it is that we should focus more on producing electricity through other sources of renewable energy, and simultaneously, electric vehicles should also use the same source of renewable electricity, which can, in turn, help in having a better future for all of us.

Furthermore, it’s just a matter of fact that, when everyone in the city will solely be using electricity to charge their vehicle, there will be a drastic increment in the demand for electricity. As of now, we are majorly dependent on burning fossils for generating electricity, and to have a sustainable future, we should aim for a better resource of producing electricity. Until we use renewable sources of energy for generating electricity, the EV revolution will not be of much use.

All of this adds up to the fact that there is an urgent need to figure out a better fuel for the future: just to make things a bit better, there is hydrogen, paving the way for a better and sustainable future fuel.

For now, or maybe for quite some time, hydrogen has been regarded as the ultimate green fuel. It is the most abundant element on earth, thus making it rule out all other power producing fuels. It provides three times more energy than fossil fuels and releases pure water as the only by-product. It is also one of the leading options for storing energy from renewables and looks promising to be the lowest-cost option for storing electricity over days, weeks or even months. All of this sounds like a fairy tale, but as humans, we love to experiment and explore alternatives to create a better future for all of us, and in that route, this one sits perfectly.

Now, let’s see what advancements have been going around us. For a start, fuel cell technology relies on the chemical energy of hydrogen to generate electricity in a clean manner effectively. Unlike primary fuels like coal and petroleum, or renewable energy sources like wind or solar power, hydrogen is an energy carrier having a great potential in the long run. This means that hydrogen is required to be produced using primary sources of energy, such as natural gas, water, biomass, among others. Once procured, hydrogen can be used to supply electricity across sectors – including industrial and commercial buildings, transportation, and long-term grid-based energy storage in reversible systems, to name some of the usages apart from the vehicular advancements.

Coming back to cars, the fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are majorly powered by hydrogen. Like all electric vehicles, FCEVs use electricity to power an electric motor. However, instead of using electricity through batteries that draw power from the grid to function, FCEVs generate electricity using a fuel cell stack powered by hydrogen that is stored on-board. A rather, useful piece of information for anyone who is looking for better fueling options in the automotive industry.

Hydrogen technology is still at a very beginning stage in the country, and there is limited infrastructure and scale of hydrogen dispensing units available. This makes the acquisition and total cost of ownership for FCEVs higher. To add to it, most hydrogen production methods deployed today rely on fossil fuels, which indeed is a major reason of concern when it comes to producing hydrogen as we are ending up utilising more fossil fuels in a broader spectrum.

Now, let’s place some facts and figures to have a better perspective:

The World Energy Transitions Outlook report by International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), year 2021 suggests that the share of hydrogen in the 2050s energy mix should reach 12 percent from almost zero right now and, in a way, lead to having a proper fix for the coming future which seems gloomy for now. It also mentions that 66 percent of the hydrogen to be used in 2050 needs to be green – produced from water as compared to natural gas.

As per the record, today, around 120 tonnes of hydrogen is produced annually and less than 1 percent is green hydrogen, says the report. To meet the 2050 levels, manufacturing and deployment of electrolysers that are used to isolate the element need to be scaled up at an unprecedented rate – from the current capacity of 0.3 GW to almost 5,000 GW by 2050, just to meet the proposed units of hydrogen which, in turn, is a greater task than all of its predecessors.

A lot has been talked about the very useful technology of producing energy using hydrogen. As we all know that hydrogen plays a major role in producing electricity, let’s see what electricity is capable of delivering for the future perspective of transportation.

Even for a less known fact, the auto industry acknowledges that the electrification of the automobile is here to stay. Almost every major automaker is working on battery-electric vehicles that require recharging from the power grid, and cars that produce their own electricity from compressed hydrogen gas. It is safe to say that the hydrogen is the fuel of future, and as soon the whole world tries to maximise its production and storage capacity, we are on a safer path to the future.

To sum it all up, India is also trying to figure out how to act on the future of fuel and have a better idea of dealing with all the tension regarding depletion of fossil fuels while trying to produce energy. A great example to tackle the situation would be of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. that along with International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) initiated a project to study and evaluate the world’s most advanced FCEV Toyota Mirai which runs on hydrogen, on Indian roads and climatic conditions. This project aims at spreading awareness about hydrogen, the FCEV technology and disseminating its benefits to support hydrogen-based society in India. Hopefully these tiny steps in the right direction could provide us with a greater possibility of the future altogether.