Audi and Rimac, together to develop the fully electric Audi R8?

Audi and Rimac, together to develop the fully electric Audi R8? Earlier this year, Bram Schot, chairman of the brand with the four rings, openly speculated about the future of the Audi R8. During the company’s annual general meeting, the executive asked, “Do we need a successor with a combustion engine? Does this fit our vision?”.

Bram Schot provided no answers, but it seems that Audi is advancing its strategy to carry out a worthy successor to the Audi R8. Some sources have already reported that the German brand of the Volkswagen group has already approached Rimac with the aim of collaborating on a high-performance electric vehicle that would replace the Audi R8.

The details are limited, but the car could come to be known with the nickname Audi RS e-Tron and could launch between 2023 and 2024. According to reports, the vehicle in question would be built by the Ingolstadt brand at its Bollinger Höfe plant, but much of the development work would be outsourced to Rimac.

The company will not only play an important role in the development of the model, as sources told the publication that this fully electric supercar could be powered by a powertrain owned by Rimac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGRi85kK4n4

What will the worthy successor to the Audi R8 be like?

Speaking of the latter, everything points to the car having four fully electric motors producing a combined power of approximately 950 CV. According to reports, this configuration would allow the all-wheel-drive model to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 2.5 seconds.

Other rumored specifications include a 95 kW solid-state battery with a wireless charging system. The batteries are also scheduled to have fast-charging capability and enough energy to deliver a range of close to 500 kilometers.

In addition, the two-seater is expected to be built on an aluminum monocoque chassis with active aerodynamics. That sounds quite impressive, and the car is rumored to have a starting price of less than 200,000 euros. Of course, nothing is set in stone and plans could change, since Schot has previously expressed his desire to “concentrate maximum resources on our key projects” and to eliminate the complexity of the model. He also criticized the company for being “involved in too many projects over several years”.

A high-performance electric supercar is not exactly a key project, but the Audi R8 has been an important halo model for the four-ring brand. That said, the previous Audi R8 e-tron was a failure, as fewer than 100 units were sold. What will happen to the future Audi R8 RS e-Tron? Will it achieve the goal the German manufacturer craves? We will have to wait until 2024 to learn the outcome of this risky collaboration between Audi and Rimac.