Audi R8 ePerformance – Electric R8 again

Back in May we reported an industry rumour that Audi were planning to bring an electric R8 Concept to the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. We already know that the Audi R8 Spider will be showing up at the show, but to be honest we weren’t convinced by the tittla-tattle. But the rumours are back, this time with a name – The Audi R8 ePerformance.

Automobile Magazine in France are reporting that Audi are indeed working on an all electric version of the R8. Which I suppose does have some credibility, especially after the announcement of the Mercedes SLS AMG eDrive – albeit not scheduled for prouction until 2015.

According to the reports, The Audi R8 ePerformance will be a total EV – a plug-in. Just electric motors and batteries. So it will probably take some big leaps forward in battery technology in the next few years to make it viable. But that is possible, certainly the way batteries have moved on with litium ion and with the very promising work BYD are doing with ferrous ion batteries.

It’s expeceted that the Audi R8 ePerformance will feature fairly significant changes to the bodywork – certainly the air-intake features. The big R8 needs them for it’s internal combustion engine, but the Electric R8 won’t need them.

It’s interesting speculation, but we’ll have to wait until Framkfurt in September to see how credible it is.

Source: Automobile Magazine