Audi PB18 e-tron revealed
The Audi PB18 e-tron has been revealed as an electric hypercar with shooting brake design, boasting up to 753bhp and a 0-62mph of 2.0 seconds.
Inspired by Audi’s LMP1 racers, the PB18 is a cab forward supercar but with a shooting brake back end (and proper hatchback boot space as a result) which has an active diffuser, and a front end with dropped bonnet between the big wheelarches creating a clear view of the road – or track – ahead.
Inside the whole driver’s seat, wheels and pedals can slide from their normal position in to the middle to give single-seat, central driving on track (we don’t think they’d slide over for RHD – but why not?) because there’s no mechanical link to the controls, and there’s a big transparent OLED screen which can even superimpose racing lines on the screen (if you’re on track of course).
Under the skin there’s a 95kWh battery pack and a trio of electric motors – two at the back and one at the front – which deliver 671bhp (and a brief 735bhp boost) which is enough to hit 62mph in 2.0 seconds dead, with aggressive motor regeneration, 311 mile range (theoretically) and a 15 minute charge time with 800v charging.
Despite all that, the PB18 is lighter that an R8 thanks to little in the way of unnecessary luxuries and plenty of lightweight materials, and there’s no autonomous functions on offer either. Which is rather refreshing and does promise to be very appealing to actual petrolheads.
Will the PB18 e-tron make it in to production? Probably not. But if it’s a pointer at a future Audi electric supercar it’s the most convincing, and appealing, effort so far from Audi.
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