Early details on all-electric Audi R8 emerge

Audi Sport technical chief Steffen Bamberger has confirmed the all-electric third-generation Audi R8 supercar will trade driving range for performance and agility – and it could come with advanced new in-hub electric motors.

Speaking at the recent launch of the fourth-generation Audi RS 3, Bamberger confirmed that Audi Sport’s new flagship supercar will be based on a dedicated architecture shared with an unnamed “Italian manufacturer” within the Volkswagen Group.

Of course, the brand the Audi RS tech boss was careful not to name is Lamborghini, which is understood to be developing an Aventador alongside the next R8 in a bid to shoulder the high R&D costs.

While Audi has previously produced a number of battery-powered R8 prototypes, in the past it was rumoured that the new R8 could be reinvented as a plug-in hybrid supercar that would capitalise on Audi’s significant investment in top-level sports car racing.

But it now appears certain the replacement for the Ingolstadt-based car-maker’s flagship supercar, which is no longer available in Australia reportedly due to the Australian market's unique engine tune specification, will be exclusively pure-electric.

While he wouldn’t detail exact specifications for Audi’s all-electric R8, Bamberger confirmed he has tasked his engineers with developing a supercar that offers both a decent driving range and competitive performance that is repeatable in the real world.

“There's no point having a car that can deliver 1000kW but then use half its range in two minutes. We think that will be too frustrating for our customers,” he said.

Like Mercedes-AMG, which is also grappling with the transition to pure-electric power, Bamberger said batteries of future high-performance cars like the electric R8 would come with cells that deliver high-power density rather than maximum energy density.

That means the Audi supercar’s batteries will be capable of deploying maximum power for longer periods than current cells, making them a better match for high-performance vehicle applications and driving flat-out on track.

The added advantage of high-power density batteries is that they can be charged at a far higher rate than today's power packs at high speeds.

When asked how far the next-gen R8 would travel between recharges, Bamberger told carsales that internal targets for the Audi supercar match the circa-300km distances that can be extracted from a tankful of fuel in the current crop of supercars.

Because they are not hamstrung by the need to deliver a 500km range, Audi Sport engineers can fit a smaller, more compact battery, bringing important weight and packaging advantages that will enhance the way it drives.

As well as a smaller, lighter battery pack with high power density, Bamberger confirmed his team is considering more radical alternatives to the Volkswagen Group's axle-mounted electric motors.

That includes the potential to employ next-gen in-hub motors that are ultra-compact, far lighter than current motors and offer unprecedented levels of torque vectoring.

There's no word on how quick the next-generation Audi R8 EV will be, but Bamberger says he’s not a fan of the brutal performance delivered by the quad-motor Rimac Nevera, which develops an astonishing 1408kW/2360Nm and is claimed to hit 100km/h in a gob-smacking 1.85 seconds.

“You can only drive it [at full power] like twice with your wife on board before she divorces you,” he said. “I never thought you could have too much power, but it does.”

Nevertheless, Audi is set to benefit from plenty of the knowhow accrued during development of the Croatian hypercar thanks to the complicated deal to offload Bugatti to Rimac in exchange for Porsche taking a larger stake in the EV start-up.