Audi dares to take on a new electric supercar after withdrawing the R8 e-tron

It seems that the supercar segment doesn’t have much fondness for 100% electric drive. The proof is that Audi had to withdraw the R8 e-tron, the version of its supercar powered by electricity and whose image you can see at the top of this article. It did not sell as expected, and the German company decided to pull it from the market before it suffered losses that would erode its capacity to react. But fortunately, it seems they haven’t thrown in the towel and are considering building a new model of this type to face the future.

Peter Menters, the brand’s head of development, spoke with Car&Driver about the possibility that the brand is working on a new vehicle with these characteristics. The executive sidesteps the question when asked about it, but seems to make it fairly clear when he says that “a brand like Audi having a supercar is always very interesting, and if it is a segment we have been working on, we can offer a very serious alternative.”

That said, no date has been given for when this new fully electric Audi supercar might be seen, although some information about its features has been revealed. For example, one possibility is that this future electric model will use an 800-volt charging system, identical or at least similar to the one used by the Porsche Mission E, the brand’s luxury electric option.

According to Menters, this system would increase the price of the car, but of course, if we are talking about a supercar, it won’t matter much to anyone who wants to enjoy driving one. Nevertheless, for those who want powerful cars with the look of a supercar but cannot afford those exorbitant prices, the Audi executive has said there may possibly be an offer of S and RS models of e-tron models.

What seems clearest is that the S and RS versions already on the market could soon begin to enjoy plug-in hybrid technology, a technology expected to deliver all the performance that these more powerful and faster variants deserve. It’s just a matter of waiting and seeing what plans Audi has for a more electric future with better performance. Do you think they will surprise us in the segment of hybrid and fully electric vehicles?