Latest warmed five-door fastback ditches petrol for Audi’s surprisingly sporty hybrid diesel power
Sounds a bit crude for such a good-looking car, but what we have here, mechanically speaking, is the closest product possible to the Audi S6 – also launched this week – without masking it the same.The S7 has the same chassis and running gear, the same ingenious, clean and powerful mild-hybrid diesel powerplant and much the same dimensions. In fact, if you were looking for a pair of cars to illustrate how car makers can make two distinct models using the same ‘stuff’, this pair of Audis would fill the bill.This Sportback is a rakish five-door, a little lower and a little heavier than the S6 four-door but deemed special enough to command an entry price of around £8000 to the good. See the two cars together – as we did on test near Wiesbaden, Germany – and it’s not hard to appreciate the reason for that price disparity: the lower and more graceful S7, with its slightly more confined accommodation, is arguably the best-looking car Audi makes, and looks instantly exotic enough to command a higher price. So it does.Along with the S6 and SQ5, it commits Audi to a new 48V hybrid 3.0-litre diesel V6 as motive power for its high-performance versions of the A6, an odd-looking move when diesels are declining in popularity, especially in the UK, and no one’s very optimistic about a recovery.
Source: Autocar
