The Audi R8 supersport as we know it will probably end with this generation. The successor will be electric.
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The Audi R8 will always have a special place in the brand’s history, as it was the first sports car with a motor in the middle to significantly influence the public’s view of the premium brand. It is therefore not surprising that his future has been speculated about for several years. Especially with the increasing pressure on electrification.
According to some older reports, there should have been a chance that the successor to the current generation of the R8 would have a purely electric version as well as a version with an internal combustion engine, but now it is clear that if the successor comes, it will definitely be purely electric. In an interview with Top Gear, Sebastian Grams, head of the Audi RS division, suggested this.
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„The Audi RS follows the purely electrical strategy of the main Audi brand. This is the plan for our S and RS models. If we were to build a new type of supercar, it would be an electric car. It follows our strategy, our vision, for a purely electric futureGrams said.
On the one hand, the word “if” may mean that we will not see a successor to the R8 at all, but current trends, when sports electric cars are growing in popularity, suggest something else. Instead of V8 or V10 engines, the new R8 will get an electric drive called e-tron.
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Grams thus de facto confirmed for the first time that the new Audi R8 would not bet on electrified drive, downsizing or more versions of the drive, but would be purely electric. According to colleagues from Top Gear, we can expect the arrival of a new model around the middle of this decade, ie around 2025.
And what can we actually expect from the new generation? For example, the high performance of electric cars is growing at a rocket pace. “Horsepower and performance are now growing exponentially with full electric supersports,Grimes suggested. At the same time, he added that extreme performance such as the Lotus Evija or Rimac Nevera will not be needed.
„If you build a light car, then you don’t need 2,000 horses to have fun on the road. Physics will always limit the power you can use even on a circuit. So, for example, if you have 2,500 or 2,000 horses, it won’t make any difference,“Top Gear colleagues are quoted by Grames.
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The new generation of the Audi R8, if we see it, should probably be developed with regard to lower weight and good handling. But Grams adds that range, sound and other special features will also play a role, such as the RS Torque Rear mode on the RS3, which Grames described as fun.
The possible design of the new generation Audi R8 could then be suggested, for example, by the PB18 e-tron concept, which the carmaker unveiled in 2018 as a design study of an electric flagship.
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