At last week’s tony Design Miami reveal of the 2011 A8 luxury cruiser, we were able to corner Johan de Nysschen, Audi’s executive vice president in North America, and ask him for some tasty tibits on the brand’s upcoming products, including the A8’s sexier derivative, the A7.

In addition to giving us the first official confirmation of the A7’s existence, de Nysschen revealed that the four-door coupe model will slot in “a little bit below” the new A8 in terms of pricing, just as we expected. Of course, it’s worth noting that the 2011 A8 faces a price bump due to substantial increases in content and technology, so when the A7 finally comes to the States, the average model is likely to sticker at around $82,000-$83,000, which de Nysschen says is about the price for a typically equipped 2010 A8 (pricing starts at $74,550 plus delivery).

Based on Audi’s new longitudinal modular platform technology, the A7 will be clearly related to the A8 (and the A6 replacement that will follow it), and de Nysschen says that the 2009 Detroit Auto Show Sportback concept car serves as a “very reliable indicator” of what the production model will look like. Judging by recent spy shots from our friends at KGP, that very much appears to be the case. While parts commonality will be “substantial,” de Nysschen says that the A7 will not use the full aluminum spaceframe design of the A8, although it will have aluminum elements.

As expected, the A8 will launch Stateside in both standard and long-wheelbase formats, with the latter predicted to make up the lion’s share of the volume (the A8L presently accounts for about 80 percent of the model’s sales).

We asked De Nysschen about how the two models will interact in the full-size luxury sedan segment, and he noted that:

“This top end segment is characterized by more conservative people, and we need to clearly take lower levels of risk with a flagship model [the A8]. But we recognize too that there is a sizable enough cluster of customers in that same segment who are ready for a more avant-garde design [the A7]. So we will essentially be positioning two cars into the same segment, which means that independently, the volume each attains is not that significant, but when you put them together, it will mean that our share of that segment will grow quite dramatically.”

All-in De Nysschen thinks that the A8 will account for about 4,000 to 5,000 sales per year in the U.S., and the less costly A7 could clear 7,000-8,000 additional units.

I would like to summarize the some of the dangerous driving behaviors who could lead to serious accidents. Car crashes continue to be the leading cause of death among teenagers of driving age. Then you might need my friends from used car parts web site.

* Cell phone use: Common sense suggests that manipulating a cell phone while driving will increase the likelihood of an accident. However, as presented in “Driven to Distraction: Cell Phones in the Car,” hands-free systems have not been shown to have any positive effect on reducing that rate.
* Loud music: Listening to loud music inhibits the driver’s ability to hear horns and emergency vehicles, and can stimulate faster, more reckless driving.
* Passengers: Passengers can be distracting, especially to young drivers. Studies show that young drivers with young passengers tend to get in more accidents than those driving alone. Many states now address this issue by including passenger restrictions in graduated licensing programs.
* Anger and stress: Some people go for a drive as a means of combating anger or stress, but tense motorists may have impaired judgment and may be more likely to drive in an aggressive manner.
* Text-messaging: For many, text-messaging is becoming a primary means of communication, and some drivers are multi-tasking at great risk.

When introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, Audi boasted its all-electric e-tron was fitted with four electric motors producing “230 kW (313 horsepower) and 4,500 Nm (3,319.03 pound-feet) of torque.” While the e-tron’s styling may have raised a few eyebrows, we were notably moved by the quoted torque figure - especially when we considered that the twin-turbocharged Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, one of the most powerful vehicles on the road, makes 738 lb-ft in comparison. We were stupefied by the number, and it set off more than a few debates among our group, but Audi made no attempt to clarify…

The team at Automobile Magazine, initially duped like everyone else, has recognized that Audi was quoting torque measured at the wheels, not at the output shaft - the industry standard. Measuring torque at the wheels takes the multiplication effect of the transmission and final drive gears into account. The resulting figures are generally ten-fold of what they would be at the crank (meaning cars like a 3.6-liter Chevrolet Malibu packs a similar 3,115 lb-ft of torque). Audi’s e-tron torque figures are not exactly dishonest, but they are using a completely different evaluation without making mention of it in the press release.

At the LA Auto Show this morning, the Audi A3 TDI was crowned the 2010 Green Car of the Year, wresting the title away from last year’s winner, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Even though three hybrids made this year’s list of finalists, the A3’s win marks the second year in a row that a TDI diesel car took top honors in the Green Car Journal competition.

Each year, Green Car Journal picks the five finalists and then hands over selection duties to celebrity jurors (Jay Leno, Carroll Shelby, and the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope, to name a few). During the award ceremony, Green Car Journal editor Ron Cogan said that the five finalists are notable because they are all mainstream vehicles that are available today. They exist because that’s what the market is asking for.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the drop-top Audi R8 Spyder. Images were leaked in early September, and we were there in Frankfurt for its official debut. That said, its unveiling at the LA Auto Show was less than climactic… other than the fact the Spyder was sporting a flashy bright-red bodywork.

New hue aside, the new convertible variant is a looker from its carbon-fiber mirrors to polished aluminum wheels. The blades are gone and it has gained 476 pounds in the transformation, but the standard Lambo-derived 525-hp V10 will still rip it to 60 mph in about four seconds flat.

We weren’t exactly electrified by Audi’s e-tron concept when it debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show in blazing red paint this past September, but we did like the color. So, when the e-tron reappeared at the LA Auto Show this week wearing orange.

As a refresh, the e-tron concept uses four electric motors with a combined output of 313 horsepower (and a mind-boggling 3,319 lb-ft of torque) to move its 3,527-pound mass to 62 mph in 4.8 seconds. More impressive is its rolling acceleration from 37-75 mph in just 4.1 seconds. The top speed is electronically-limited to 124 mph. According to Audi, we’ll see a production version in 2012.