Although the car is huge and has a bigger engine than say the S-class, it weighs 10kg less, thanks to the all aluminium body. And there is its low coefficient of drag of just 0.27 which has been achieved after numerous tests in wind tunnels. In fact the A8 sports a faired underbody which has a lower coefficient of drag than a totally smooth panel having the same area.

While these and obviously the efficiency of the engine are some of the pluses in favour of fuel efficiency the A8 has a number of negatives as well. First amongst them would be the size of the engine - 4.2 litres of displacement is over twice the displacement of a Toyota Corolla or a Ford Mondeo engine and second would be the all time four-wheel drive. So when we got 9kmpl on the highway without the air-con switched on and 5.1kmpl in the city with the air-con running, we weren't too disappointed. This translates into overall fuel efficiency of 6.1kmpl and given the 90-litre fuel tank makes for a range of nearly 550km.