This is a great looking Audi model, but the 2012 Audi A8 Hybrid will not be seeing the shores of the United States. This version is being built only for Western Europe and especially with an eye on the Asian car market. The European version has shown up to the dealers as of this past May and Asian Audi drivers can expect to pick and choose their new A8 sometime next year. Audi is still considering whether the model they get will have a long wheelbase and right hand drive cabin or not. Rumors have it that they may decide to build a version for America, but it sounds like it will be old news by the time we are able to see them driving our highways and byways, and it is just speculation.
The good news with all that is it doesn’t seem American drivers are going to be missing out on anything spectacular. This is just a well built sedan that if nothing else, is more of a test model to see how Audi can accomplish newer high tech propulsions. As you would expect, Audi doesn’t want to release anything but the best for the critical United States market, so maybe having to wait until they are sure they have what they are building is perfected is okay after all.
In the meantime, reports are good about the 2012 Audi A8 Hybrid so far. It hosts a gas electric system including a 2.0 liter TFSI four cylinder that gets a respectable 208 horsepower. This gives it enough guts to go from 0 to 62 in just about 7.9 seconds and while that won’t beat the sportsters, it’s not bad for a cruising sedan. If America does get its hands on its own version, we can expect to pay about $105,000 for the longer wheelbase model and around $70,000 for the short base model due to the higher equipment levels we demand.
Source Autoblog