Here we have an Audi A8L Horch, as seen in an Audi dealer in China. The enormous German limousine looked mightily impressive. The Horch comes with loads of extra bling in the grille and bumper, shiny forged pothole rims, and darkened windows. The Horch was displayed right below an equally enormous light unit, taking center stage in the dealer’s building.
The Horch name, with a crowned H, on the front fender.
The Audi A8L Horch is a special extra luxurious variant of the Audi A8L, it is only sold in China. The Horch name refers to the German luxury car maker Horch, which morphed into Audi in 1932. Seen in that way, Horch is similar in idea to the Mercedes-Maybach line. However, the A8L Horch is the only Horch-branded car until now.
The Audi A8L Horch is made in Germany. It was launched in China in 2022. It is 13 centimeters longer than the base Audi A8L. Size comparison:
Audi A8L: 5320x1945x1488, 3128.
Audi A8L Horch: 5450x1945x1486, 3258.
The Horch logo on the C-pillar.
Audi has two joint ventures in China: FAW-Volkswagen Audi, established in 1991, and SAIC-Volkswagen Audi, established in 2021. Each joint venture has its own separate dealer network. Imported Audi’s are sold via FAW-Volkswagen Audi dealers.
The beautiful 20-inch forged alloy wheels with the Horch logo in the center.
The Audi A8L Horch was developed as a chauffeur-driven vehicle. All the extra space goes to the passengers in the rear compartment. Instead of a bench, it has two captain seats with a wide center tunnel in between. Each passenger has a tablet-sized screen for entertainment. Check the enormous leg room!
Horch-branding is everywhere. On the door-sill and projected on the ground. The plastics in the door bin look quite cheap for such a high-end car.
Beautiful leather! But the tiny screens show the A8’s age. The current generation (D5), was launched in 2017. That’s like forever ago in China.
The entire lower part of the bumper is fitted with shiny trim! The rear light unit looks cool, connected by a red strip. Power: The Audi A8L Horch is based on the A8L 60 TFSI model. Under the hood is a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine +48V with an output of 338 kW (460 hp) and 660 Nm. The gearbox is an 8-speed automatic, all-wheel drive.
The top speed is limited to 250 km/h and 0-100 takes 4.8 seconds. Fuel consumption is a steep 11.53 liters per 100 kilometers.
The Audi A8L is a beautiful car, but Chinese consumers ain’t stupid. They know very well how old the A8L is, and no matter how many Horch badges Audi sticks on it, old is always old. It isn’t cheap. The Horch costs 2.07 million yuan ($291K), and the top-spec standard A6L costs 1.76 million ($247K).
That is a lot of extra cash for a little more length and luxury. No wonder I haven’t seen any of these on the road. A reliable source told me that the CEO of Audi China has one, complete with a chauffeur. Nice, but Audi better come up with a luxury electric sedan for China, or they will loose any market share that they still have in the luxury sedan segment.