Soon-ish, at least.
According to reports, Audi appears to be seriously considering the possibility of a halo electric supercar, if comments are to be believed. Peter Mertens, Audi’s new head of development, spoke candidly to Car & Driver about the future of the ‘e-tron’ pure-electric family of cars, and revealed some of the plans that the company has in the pipeline.
“You can very well imagine that, at some point, we will have an electric supercar,” Mertens said to journalists during the 2017 Formula E race in Berlin, Germany. This indicates that the R8 e-tron (featured here), the only other fully-electric supercar the Ingolstadt marque has had previously, will finally receive a successor after its tumultuous history and short life (it was withdrawn after just 19-months on the market).
“The question is,” Mertens continued, “would I like to make it sooner? The answer is yes, of course. It’s part of our plan. We’re not going to talk about that today, but I can tell you that for a brand like Audi, a supercar is always interesting. It’s a segment in which we have been playing, we have been a very serious player.”
The electric supercar that will (eventually) sit at the top of the e-tron family hierarchy will not simply be an R8 with a battery pack of course, as e-tron will be setting itself apart by offering bespoke, unique models in its lineup that will carry little to no resemblance to other existing Audi products. What the e-tron supercar will likely carry an 800-volt charging system rather than the 400-volt system already featured in electrified Audis, which echoes the sentiments of Porsche and its development of a similarly-powered system to charge up its Mission-E concept car.
The only drawback to this high-voltage charging system? Cost. “800-volts puts significant extra cost on the bill. We need to evaluate whether customers will be prepared to pay that. In segments like super sports cars, it will be yes,no doubt about it.”
Audi’s performance electrification initiatives aren’t limited to the e-tron supercar, as Mertens said that not only could there be S and RS e-tron cars in the future, but that hybrid powertrains could find their way onto the next generation of internal-combustion performance cars. “It could definitely be a part,” the candid engineer said of the possibly hybridisation of Audi’s high-performance models. “We believe in that technology, specifically in regard to performance. Is plug-in technology a bridge? Yes, it is, but it’s also a fantastic technology for really delivering performance.”
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