If you have yet to hear the latest news about the electrifying R8 e-Tron, this promising electric supercar project from Audi was put on hold and put under review. Due to the high battery costs and the performance when compared to an existing yet less expensive electric car like Tesla’s Model S sedan, Audi’s newly-appointed head of R&D Wolfgang Durheimer decided to put the project on hold for the time being.
Usually when such move is being done, it could be simply translated as the end of the project; but that might not be the case for the e-Tron. Green Car Reports is getting word from Audi’s website Fourtitude that the mean, green R8 e-Tron has actually resumed development and testing. While this is a whiff of good news, they did not give any word on whether it will ever be seeing the production lines.
“The Audi R8 e-Tron project may still be continued in a very small volume of cars that has yet to be decided. What has been decided is that it will not be executed on a large scale production basis”, said Mark Dahncke, Product and Motorsports Communications Manager for Audi of America to AutoBlogGreen.
While a few of the R8 e-Tron prototypes were given all-wheel drive, Audi is shifting their focus into using rear-wheel drive and using only a pair of electric motors to generate 376-horsepower and 604 lb/ft of torque. With such power, it is enough to launch the car from 0-100 in just 4.2 seconds.
A lot of attention was also put into shedding the weight of the e-Tron, where fiberglass-reinforced polymer springs are used instead of steel, other than the titanium wheel hubs and the carbon fiber anti-roll bar. Even if the R8 e-Tron still hits a snag after this revival, these weight-saving parts might end up being used in the future R8 models.
Photo credits: http://www.ausringers.com/
