Audi E-Tron Sportscar Production Limited to 1000 Units

By Jon Vandervelde

Jon Vandervelde

Contributing Writer BIO

Jon Vandervelde is a designer, architect, and robot combat promoter, with a love for all things mechanical. With a B.A. in Microbiology from the... More

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1,233 views Dec 8, 2009

The Audi e-tron

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Although Audi will not publicly label itself a "green" automaker, it has reported that it will be going forward with its R-8 based e-tron electric supercar, now slated to be on show-room floors in 2012.

The company is also saying that production will be limited to a 1000 vehicles total.  It's rather open to interpretation whether that number strikes one as a mere bagatelle,  an indication of  a lack of serious commitment to EV's, or whether one reflects that 1000 is more vehicles than Tesla has yet built in its entire history, and the number seems like a pretty large toe in the "green" pool, whatever the Audi marketing flacks are saying.

The e-tron, which debuted at the Frankfurt auto-show in September, reveled in some pretty incredible technical specs, like 313 horsepower and 3000+ lb/ft of torque(!).  It turns out that the latter number may have been calculated in a somewhat misleading fashion (a contention which would seem to be borne out by the reported acceleration time of 0-62 mph in 4.8 seconds), but still, the car should be an all-electric screamer.

No official price has been released, but the number being bandied about by those in the know is $160,000.00.  The car has certainly generated a lot of attention for Audi, and company big-wigs may be beginning to sit up and take notice in a postitive way.   Nevertheless, it's  difficult to say whether a car that's actually slower in terms of straight-line acceleration than a Tesla Roadster and costs half-again as much, will be embraced by the market, and what the effect will be on Audi if it is.

[Source:Autoblog, et al]