Audi India launches facelifted RS 7 Sportback at Rs 1.40 crore

Just over a fortnight after it launched the new TT Coupé, Audi India has launched the facelifted RS7 Sportback priced at Rs 1.40 crore (ex-showroom Mumbai and Delhi). The car was unveiled today in Mumbai by Joe King, head, Audi India. The car gets styling changes to both the exterior and interior.

The facelifted RS7 gets a restyled front bumper along with a restyled grille and reworked LED headlamps with darkened graphics. Audi also offers Matrix-LED headlamps as an add-on option for the model. At the back the car older tail-lamps are replaced by newer units with LED graphics while the alloy wheels are also new.

Inside, the RS7 gets a revised instrument cluster along with new air-con controls and restyled paddle-shifters. Also updated is the optional Multi Media Interface Plus infotainment system which now gets a new Nvidia graphics processor.

Under the hood, the facelifted RS7 retains the 552bhp, 4.0-litre V8 turbo-petrol engine from the outgoing model. Power is sent to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission and Audi’s Torsen (torque sensing) four-wheel drive system. Audi claims the same 0-100kph time of 3.9sec as before with top speed limited to 255kph. The top speed can be increased to 280kph or 305kph with the 'Dynamic package'.

Audi has been on a roll in India since the past few years. After topping the sales charts in calendar year 2014 by selling 10,851 cars, the German carmaker sold 11,292 units in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015. It sold 10,126 units during the previous fiscal year (2013-14). This translates into a year-on-year growth of 11.5 percent.

With this performance, Audi India edged past Mercedes-Benz India by a small margin of 79 cars. Mercedes-Benz India sold 11,213 cars during FY2014-15. BMW, the third player in the German troika, has not shared its India sales numbers as yet.

However, Mercedes-Benz India reportedly was ahead of Audi India for the January to March 2015 quarter by a margin of 427 cars. It sold 3,566 units in Q1, FY2016. The coming months will see the race in the luxury car market intensify even more as manufacturers look to introduce new models as well as increase localisation levels to be more cost competitive. 

Audi India's stable comprises 18 cars. The Audi model range in India includes the A3 Sedan, A3 Cabriolet, A4, A6, A7 Sportback, A8 L, Q3, Q5, Q7, S4, S6, RS 5 Coupé, new RS 7 Sportback, all-new TT Coupé, R8, R8 Spyder, R8 V10 plus and R8 LMX.