Audi reveals a hard-core 570kW hatchback

What do you get when you throw an Audi R8 supercar, an RS 3 hot hatch and an electric toaster oven into an industrial-sized blender? The Audi PB18 e-tron concept car, it seems.

The wild new Audi PB18 show car was unveiled at today’s 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance opening in California, where fabulously rich and famous car nerds hang out.

The normally reserved Audi describes the unexpected concept as “radical” and we tend to agree.

The German luxury brand’s “vision for the high-performance sports car of tomorrow” looks like a next-generation Audi R8 from the front. But its rump is unorthodox with flat roof and a pointy tail-end with massive LED lighting combining to create a hatchback look.

Some of the Audi PB18 e-tron’s crazy features include a cabin that can transform between single and dual passenger layouts by sliding the driver from a central position to the side.

Plus there’s an augmented reality windscreen display and even a solid-state battery pack that takes just 15 minutes to deliver a 500km range, says Audi.

Oh, and because it takes advantage of inductive (read: wireless) charging it doesn’t even need to be plugged in. Handy.

A lot of these ideas are truly pie-in-the-sky stuff but it’s fascinating to see what happens when Audi’s designers and engineers are given free rein to explore their fantasies.

The Audi PB18 e-tron powertrain comprises three electric motors with a combined maximum output of 570kW and 830Nm.

There is one e-motor for the front axle and two at the rear – likely affording instant torque vectoring – and the 0-100km/h dash is speculated to take just “scarcely more than 2 seconds”. Cheek rippling stuff.

The solid-state battery pack is good for around 95kWh and, while most modern-day concept cars incorporate autonomous driving functions, Audi boldly declares this is a ‘Level 0’ vehicle, meaning the driver is always in control.

It’s not just the cabin of the Audi PB18 e-tron concept that’s adaptive, with the rear spoiler and even the rear diffuser capable of moving fore and aft in order to improve aerodynamics when 'race mode' is engaged.

Along with the active aero, the car rides on 22-inch alloy wheels that hide 19-inch carbon-ceramic disc brakes. Adaptive magnetic shock absorbers are twinned with racy push-rod suspension.

But the most impressive element of the dramatic Audi PB18 e-tron design is a usable boot that’s only slightly smaller than a Volkswagen Golf’s.

If this is Audi’s first R8 Shooting Brake, we’ll take two of them!