Audi R8 e-Tron WILL go in to production & get 280 mile range

The electric R8 – the Audi R8 e-Tron – has once more been confirmed for production after improved technology enable a range of 280 miles.

Audi has been playing with the electric R8 e-Tron for the last five years, with a constant on and off for production. But it seems the R8 e-Tron is going in to production after all.

Just last year Audi revealed they’d given up on the R8 e-tron with poor range and high costs cited as the reason, but it seems Audi has had a rethink, managed to endow the e-Tron with better range and are planning ‘Limited’ production.

The production version of the Audi R8 e-Tron will not be based on the existing prototype e-Trons but on the next generation R8, which itself is based on the new Lamborghini Huracan.

Audi say that improvements in battery technology now mean the R8 e-Tron will have a range of 280 miles (this was originally 134 miles) but have not produced any performance figures.

With more powerful batteries we would expect the new R8 e-Tron to manage more impressive figures than the original spec car, which managed 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds, although we doubt it will come close to the performance of the electric Mercedes SLS.

It seems the R8 e-Tron will be a limited production model – basically built to order – and we’d expect the price to be rather more than a regular R8, although perhaps not as much as the £400k Mercedes SLS ED.