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Carsales Staff27 Feb 2015
NEWS

GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Audi R8 e-tron and LMS

Audi killed its all-electric supercar once. But now it’s back, and there's a new R8 racer too

Audi has revealed details of its second-generation R8 e-tron electric supercar and LMS racer, both of which are now confirmed to make their world debut alongside the standard 2016 R8 Coupe at next week's Geneva motor show.

The all-new R8 V10 twins – including the Plus version that will be Audi's fastest production car ever – were officially revealed last night, after being leaked across the internet earlier in the day.

At the same time, Audi announced its new-generation 340kW all-electric 'R8 e-tron 2.0' will enter low-volume, hand-built production and will be available to order this year.

Also confirmed are its vital statistics, including 0-100km/h acceleration in just 3.9 seconds – just four-tenths slower than the base R8 V10 – and electronically-limited 210 or 250km/h top speeds.

Audi showed an all-electric R8 as far back as 2009, but the project was cancelled due to the car’s short driving range of around 210km. Even more impressively, the new R8 e-tron 2.0 will more than double that, pushing its claimed range out to 450km.

This is due to the increased capacity of the in-house T-shaped lithium-ion battery -- which sits in the transmission tunnel and across behind the front seats, lowering the car's centre of gravity and improving weight distribution – which grows from the original R8 e-tron’s 49 to 92kWh.

At the same time, battery energy density has been increased from 84 to 154 Wh/kg without any change to the battery's packaging, and Audi says intelligent energy management and an electromechanical brake system enable high energy recuperation rates.

The Combined Charging System (CCS) allows charging with direct and alternating current, which Audi claims makes it possible to fully charge the battery in "significantly less than two hours".

The battery powers two electric motors, one for each axle and each now outputting 170kW and 460Nm for a total of 920Nm of torque, instantly.

Audi says targeted torque vectoring, which it describes as "needs-based distribution of power transmission between the rear wheels" ensures maximum dynamics and stability.

The R8 e-tron will be built on the same multimaterial Audi Space Frame hybrid chassis as the R8 V10 and R8 V10 Plus, which means a carbon-fibre floor, transmission tunnel and rear cabin bulkhead for stiffness and light weight, and wrapped in the same lightweight body with 0.28Cd drag coefficient.

Meantime, the second generation of Audi's super-successful R8 LMS customer race car also brings significant advances, weighing just 1225kg despite sharing 50 per cent of its parts with the road-going R8.

It shares the road car’s stiff chassis, including its carbon-fibre floor, tunnel and rear bulkhead, but the GT3 sports car is wider than the road car and uses a unique body that is mostly carbon-fibre, reinforced with multimaterial ASF and supported by a high-strength steel roll cage.

Audi claims the engine is virtually untouched, with the 5.2-litre V10 delivering 430kW, depending on the regulations and the air inlet restrictor it is forced to use. That’s actually 19kW less than the R8 Plus.

The car will be tested and raced by the works teams this year, before becoming available to customer teams early in 2016.

Note: Action and interior images depict 2016 R8 Plus; Charging image depicts previous-generation R8 e-tron.

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Written byCarsales Staff
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