Audi has unveiled its latest generation A6, a few days in advance of its official world premiere in the Geneva motor show’s big stage.

Let’s take a closer look at the sporty new sedan.

This time around, Audi decided to develop the sportiest A6 of all time. They kept the best qualities of the previous A6, the core elements and at the same time created an entirely new design language.

Exterior

You can notice the all new architecture at the front of the car. The single frame grill which graces every Audi and defines its face, is noticeably flatter and wider. This makes the new A6 look sportier than its predecessor.

The head and tail lights in particular have a super three dimensional design, and a chrome bar further enhance the aerodynamics.

Under the hood

Initially a range of 4 engines will be offered for the new A6, starting with the 250 kW V6 TFSI, followed by two 6-cylinder turbo charged diesel engines with outputs of 170 and 210 kWs.

All engine variations come with the Quattro 4-wheel drive system and automatic transmissions. Audi will also launch a smaller 150 kW 4 cylinder diesel version with front wheel drive.

Audi has been on a mild hybridisation for all the engines, deciding on automatic transmission to get the greatest efficiency.

They developed a new generation of transmissions as well as new rear axle differential, so they’d have several points to cut down on CO2.

There are two automatic transmissions to choose from; the classic torque converter for engines putting out 500 N M and more, and the new generation dual clutch transmission for front wheel drives and as an automatic for the Quattro ultra, for Torque’s limited to 500 N M or less.

Interior

In many ways the A6 is modeled on its big brother, the A8, especially in its luxurious and state of the art cockpit.

Each of the new A6 vehicles have two monitors. The standard equipped lower and upper displays are 8.6 inches while the upper one is 10.1 inches in higher trim lines.

These two screens have replaced all the buttons, so the driver and passenger can work everything through the use of touch screens. This allows for an intuitive operating concept, with both haptic and audio feedback; vibration or an audio signal which makes things easier for the driver without losing concentration on the road.

When you toggle a control, a little pulse or an audio signal confirms the selection, so the driver can easily use the multimedia interface while driving.

It can still also be operated by voice commands and addresses can be entered on the keypad.

Cutting edge technology

Another relatively intuitive feature is the built-in handwriting recognition. So if you’d like to drive to Berlin, you can simply use your finger to write Berlin across the screen and the navigation system will guide you to Berlin.

Audi is quite aware it’s not easy to write legibly while driving, that’s why they found it important to make the operation as intuitive as possible.

The driver can also write each letter on top of the previous one and the system will still identify and find the address relatively fast.

Another very convenient technological feature is the option to unlock the A6 using your smartphone. The car will automatically recognise the phone and load all user preferences.

Prices for a new Audi A6 are likely to start at around EUR44,000.

This content has been published in partnership with Deutsche Welle (DW).