The Audi R8 e-tron won't be coming to a dealer near you. A source at Audi confirms to Wired that the automaker has canceled plans to produce its all-electric supercar for mass consumption, citing the disadvantages of existing battery technology and the changing priorities of Audi's new head of R&D.
The move, first reported by Car & Driver, does not mark the end of the e-tron, our source says. Audi plans to produce approximately 10 R8 model e-trons for internal evaluation – none of which will go on sale to the general public.
Audi unveiled the R8 e-tron concept three years ago at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and announced plans to put it into production within the next four years. Since then, the electric coupe has appeared at every major auto show, and taken a lap of LeMans circuit. Just this past June, it ran a blistering 8-minute, 9-second lap around the famed Nürburgring circuit in Germany. Things were looking good, with the e-tron on track to begin a limited production run next year.
But in May, former Bentley CEO and Porsche development chief Wolfgang Dürheimer was tasked with taking over R&D duties at the top of Audi's seven-member management board. That led to a shift in the luxury automaker's priorities, and one of the projects that didn't make the cut was the all-electric e-tron program.
Audi is currently testing two EVs internally: the R8 and the A3 e-tron. The latter of these is being used as an evaluation vehicle within the automaker as a means of determining future electrically driven products. The R8 e-tron will apparently share the same fate.
That shift can be directly attributed to Dürheimer's reign and the apparent limited range of the electric supercar. Additionally, Audi is shifting its focus away from pure electric vehicles and toward plug-in hybrids, evidenced by plans to produce A1, A3, A4, A6, and Q7 SUV hybrid-electric models that can have their batteries topped up through a household outlet. That solution negates the range anxiety issue, as all these proposed models could run on electricity alone for a short distance before the internal combustion engine kicks in for longer trips.
Conversely, Mercedes-Benz has reaffirmed its commitment to pursuing electric vehicle performance, showing off a new version of its SLS AMG Coupe Electric Drive at last month's Paris Motor Show. That model – due to arrive in 2013 with a price tag of over $500,000 – manages a claimed 155-mile range with a 60 kWh battery pack, despite outputting an insane 740 horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque.
But with Audi's decision not to release the R8 e-tron as a production model, we'll never see the two battling it out for electric supercar supremacy.
