The successor to the Audi R8, one of the most recognizable sports cars worldwide, will be all-electric.
In an interview with Roadshow published yesterday, Linda Kurz, Audi Sport’s head of product marketing, said future cars in the R series would be electric.
Every Audi vehicle will likely follow suit, as the company has set a deadline to sell only electric vehicles by 2026. That means the V10-powered R8 will soon be history, making way to electrify the R8 and R-badged series.
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Audi’s first foray into electric vehicles was the e-Tron GT, based on R8 models, in 2009. Since then, they did release an all-electric version of the R8 in 2015, which sold less than 100 units. However, it did have a steep starting price of $1.1M US.
Audi is also implementing software updates to its older line of e-Tron models to improve battery efficiency and extend the range of the vehicles.
As for what we might find under the hood (soon to be an outdated figure of speech), earlier concepts indicated solid-state batteries. These are lighter than current liquid-type batteries and faster to charge as well. Other auto manufacturers, such as GM, are also building factories to produce such batteries. But they likely won’t be ready until the decade’s second half.
Time will tell what the electric successor to the Audi R8 will be called. Not to mention how much it will go for. But it won’t be long until silent Audi R vehicles are zooming down highways.