The Audi R8 E-Tron Is Dead

Electric R8, we hardly knew ye. 

byWill Sabel Courtney|
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The era of the electric supercar is almost upon us...but it’s not quite here yet. Audi has killed the R8 e-tron, according to Car and Driver.

To be honest, we’d almost forgotten that the R8 e-tron was even in production...if you can call an electric supercar made in double-digit numbers a “production” vehicle. Originally rolled out as a concept based on the first-gen R8 back in 2009, the production consumer version arrived roughly a year and a half ago at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show.  

Car and Driver’s report states that Audi sold fewer than 100 copies of the R8 e-tron in the car’s brief lifespan, with the sales occurring exclusively in Europe through Audi corporate itself. Each of those, C/D claims, went for €1 million (around $1.1. million at current exchange rates).

Aside from the electron-based nature of its power, the e-tron was notable for being the only rear-wheel-drive member of the street-legal R8 lineup; its twin electric motors powered the aft axle alone. But it wasn’t exactly a golf cart; the R8 e-tron cranked out 456 horsepower and 679 lb.-ft. of torque, and could travel more than 279 miles on a single charge. The carmaker even apparently sent the car to the Nurburgring to see what it could do; while Audi never released an official ‘Ring time for the 2016 R8 e-tron, we’re betting it could have beaten the 8:09 lap set by a less-powerful e-tron prototype built on the first-gen R8 platform back in 2012.

Considering how every luxury carmaker is planning a massive push into electric vehicles, we fully expect examples of the Audi R8 e-tron will sell for insane prices at Pebble Beach 2050.

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