Audi R8 e-tron On Hold, Maybe Indefinitely

At this point, all we can say is that Audi must enjoy messing with our heads. In the Spring, our spy photographers caught the R8 e-tron testing around the Nurburgring a number of times. Then, in June, the same car became the fastest electric vehicle around the Nurburgring.

Surely, this is a vehicle that is on its way to becoming a prized possession of many environmentally friendly people who still enjoy to cruise around at high speeds, right? Negative. Audi has decided that it will be putting this project on hold and could even be axing it in the future.

The decision to put the car on hold was made by Audi’s new R&D chief Wolfgang Dürheimer who thinks that the high price of the batteries could still be a problem. He also fears that there aren’t enough customers interested in an electric car of this caliber.

This seems to be a reasonable explanation for putting a vehicle on the back-burner, but we’re still a little bummed that we will not be seeing the R8 e-tron in all of its glory. Then again, we can take comfort in the fact that the Audi F12 E Performance Prototype is still out there, chugging along with the R8 e-tron’s technology, so not all is lost.