While you've been quietly going about your daily life, automotive designers have been hard at work dreaming up a whole new category of automobiles like the 2012 Audi A7. The new A7 will offer the sleek look of a coupe, yet still offer enhanced practicality thanks to a rear hatchback design. Obviously "coupe" and "practicality" don't often go together, but Audi is hoping people will find the A7 more appealing than a traditional station wagon.
hatchback in action
Expected to be based on the upcoming A6, the four-door A7 sports an attractive, upscale cabin with room for four adults. Because of the sloping roof line, rear headroom is less than what you'll find in a normal luxury sedan, but occupants shorter than 6 feet tall should be fine in back. Cargo capacity is also more than ample, ranging from 19 cubic feet behind the second-row seats up to 49 cubic feet when the split-folding rear seats are down, all accessed by a large rear hatch. By comparison, that latter number is just 2 cubes less than Audi's A4 Avant wagon.
For now, Audi's supercharged 3.0-liter V6 producing 295 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque will be standard, as will an eight-speed automatic transmission. Naturally, all-wheel drive will be standard. Put together, it should be good to accelerate the A7 to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, Audi says.
The 2012 Audi A7 Sportback is expected to go on sale in the summer of 2012. Realistically you'll want to compare it to the BMW 5 Series GT and the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, as the A7 blurs the line somewhere between more practical hatchback sedans and coupelike sedans. Check back closer to the on-sale date in the spring of 2012 for complete buying advice, specs and driving impressions.
Source from http://www.edmunds.com/audi/a7/2012/?sub=hatchback