Audi Says it Will Not Sell its Electric R8 e-tron Sports Car

By Jon Derrickson on May 30, 2013

The first Audi R8 e-tron was unveiled as a concept car at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show and has since been tested and tweaked by Audi resulting in ten different versions of the all electric car. Many speculated that the testing would at least result in a limited edition or limited run car but alas Audi has but all speculation to rest by officially confirming that the e-tron will not make it to production.

Apparently one of the reasons that production of the e-tron wouldn't be feasible is that battery cost was just too high. Instead, Audi will be focusing production on plug-in hybrid instead of the all electric. Audi did state, however, that not all was lost (Source: Edmunds.com): "As a high-tech beacon project, the R8 E-tron fulfilled its purpose," and added "Its development accelerated the advancement of various electric-vehicle components." In fact, one of the first fruits of Audi's R&D will be the A3 Sportback e-tron which will go into production later this year.

See more photos in our previous post about the R8 e-tron.

Source: Edmunds.com

Tags: Audi, Audi A3, Audi R8, Auto Shows, Electric Cars, Frankfurt Motor Show, Hybrid, Technology

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