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Auto Express gets close-up look at the 2016 Audi R8

Audi invited Auto Express to the Ascari circuit in Spain to get a ride in the new R8 that will be introduced at the Geneva Motor Show. Jack Rix starts by giving us a walkaround of the camouflage-covered coupe, the obvious difference between it and the leaked image from a couple of weeks ago being the slatted front intakes. However, those intakes are present on the image Audi teased showing off one new, slimmer, laser headlight. The biggest shock: there will be no V8 model at launch - there will be one engine in two levels of tune. The first is the 5.2-liter R8 V10 with 540 horsepower, a bump of 15 hp over the present car. The second is the 5.2-liter R8 V10 Plus with 610 hp, a leap of 60 hp over the current model. That hotter trim, identified by its fixed rear wing, drops the 0-60 mile per hour time by a half-second to 3.2 seconds, and increases top speed seven miles per hour to 205 mph. Rix ran his fingers along the intakes behind the door and said he could feel sideblades, so all is not lost - what would an R8 be without sideblades? More obviously, on the V10 Plus Rix looked over there are new trapezoidal exhaust tips framing a serious diffuser in back. Underneath, the aluminum chassis adapted from the Lamborghini Huracan is 15 percent lighter than before and 40 percent stiffer. Shifting will be done via a seven-speed S-tronic dual-clutch transmission only. There are seven driving modes, a switchable exhaust note, and more direct variable steering. The German test driver Rix rode with said the new R8 is easier to drive faster, which - no matter what you think of the looks - will make it pretty special. News Source: Auto Express via YouTubeTip: Clark Geneva Motor Show Audi Coupe Luxury Performance Videos

Audi A3 outselling Mercedes CLA 2 to 1 in its first 3 months on sale

The Audi A3 is on fire in US showrooms. Not literally of course, that would be horrible, and the situation we're referring to is a good thing indeed, as the Four Rings has a serious hit on its hands with the compact luxury sedan. Looking at just its first three months on the market, the entry-level model is outselling the Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class by nearly two to one.
The CLA was one of the hottest new cars of last year. Mercedes even called it the company's best launch in 20 years, but it sees as if that early sales performance has not been sustainable. According to Bloomberg, the CLA has seen its sales drop year-over-year in seven of the last eight months, and the new A3 came at just the right time to fill that void.
In June, Mercedes shifted 1,658 CLAs in the US, compared to 2,452 for the A3. The Merc has sold more units so far this year but only because the Audi sedan has only been on sale for three full months. With the two cars being relatively comparable as compact, front-wheel-drive, German luxury sedans, it appears buyers prefer the Four Rings over the Mercedes star, so far at least.

Mercedes may be working on a new electric car dubbed 'Ecoluxe'

Automobile has a lengthy piece this month on how the four German mass-market luxury manufacturers each plan to go after Tesla with their own electric vehicles. It was written by Georg Kacher, the magazine's European bureau chief, and the English version came a month after he wrote the German-language original for Autobild. Tesla isn't exactly a threat to the Germans, but, according to the report, the Model S is planting the right kinds of seeds in niches that are important to the luxury players. The thinking is that - in addition to needed electric vehicles anyway for stricter US regulations - it's better to start designing the machinery now. The article posited Porsche's attack would rest on the coming Panamera platform, but a big hurdle would be battery placement. Unable to find one large space for a lithium-ion pack, engineers would instead put batteries everywhere they could, for a supposed tally of some "108 battery pouches" throughout the body. A few days after the Automobile piece, however, Porsche publicly said it had no intention of challenging the Model S, because the enthusiastic driving the brand is known for doesn't jive with useful range. In Kacher's retelling, Mercedes' plans are even more ambitious, supposedly taking aim at the Model S and the coming Model X. It would do this with an investment in excess of $2 billion in a program called "Ecoluxe" – Mercedes has no brand division akin to BMW's i and Audi's e-tron. The new brand would create a four-strong family of bespoke electric vehicles: a smaller platform with a wheelbase around 106 inches and a larger one with a wheelbase around 118 inches. In addition, the range would have "provisions for rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and rear-wheel steering." The numbers are impressive: seating for seven in the larger vehicles, both longer than 16 feet, front and rear storage areas, ratings of up to 610 horsepower and production capacity of 80,000 units per year. When would we see such creatures? Perhaps as soon as 2019. We do know that if Tesla can knock the Model X over the outfield fence, automakers are going to have to do something. We don't know what the chances are that Ecoluxe is Mercedes' first move - but such a plan could help explain the weird Mercedes concept spied in October.