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Once More With Feeling: Audi's electric concept likely to be based on R8
by Jeremy Korzeniewski on Sep 3rd 2009 at 3:58PM 
Fourtitude, the internet experts on all things Audi, has compiled a list of rumors and clues that seem to indicate that the electric car concept expected from Ingolstadt at this month's Frankfurt Motor Show will indeed be based on the most excellent R8 platform. For starters, a surprisingly detailed initial report from L'Automobile magazine in France went so far as to include the R8 ePerformance moniker, which goes right along with the German automaker's current naming convention.
Further, L'Automobile offers up details – such as blocked off air intakes, a lower front chin spoiler and an enclosed front grille – that indicate the information may have been leaked from a company insider. Perhaps the biggest indication that an electric sportscar concept is in the offing from Audi is a teaser image grabbed from the new electricityuntamed.com mini-site. We can clearly see what appears to be the modified shape of an Audi R8, as you can see above. So, there you go.
[Source: Fourtitude]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
why not the LS2LS7? 4:10PM (9/03/2009)
I'm sure they'll have one. With the German government already announcing they want like 5% EVs within 4 years or whatever, every German car company will have to make a token amount of them.
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why not the LS2LS7? 4:11PM (9/03/2009)
Excuse me, by EVs, I mean to include hydrogen fuel cell vehicles too.
zamafir 4:55PM (9/03/2009)
yeah, i'd be a lot happier to see an EV A3 or A1 than an EV R8.
AC0 4:10PM (9/03/2009)
Well it's a start, but I hope there's more too it than just ripping out the engine and stuffing it with batteries. However, originality isn't exactly Audi's strength these days so i'm not expecting much.
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MikeofLA 4:24PM (9/03/2009)
"However, originality isn't exactly Audi's strength these days..."
What makes you think that? I think this community as a whole would strongly disagree
with you.
2.7tt 4:35PM (9/03/2009)
how can you say audi has no originality? c'mon, im pretty sure they were the first ones to put the running LED's on the headlights and now porsche and mercedes have implemented (very) similar ideas
R_johnson246 5:55PM (9/03/2009)
Idk if Audi was the first with running LED's...but i know Saab was the first with bar light "eyebrow" LED lights in the 2008 9-3 refresh. Does anyone know the first Audi with LEDs?
drogo 6:45PM (9/03/2009)
No, Audi was not the first with running leds, Maserati 3.2 was.
lpartridge 4:16PM (9/03/2009)
electric car? idiots buy those right?
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goowiz 4:34PM (9/03/2009)
No, only the volt
lpartridge 4:41PM (9/03/2009)
Tesla, Prius, Volt, etc. Pick you're favorite over-priced, over-hyped electric/hybrid device. Just wondering if this is perhaps because of the failure to make a TDI R8. Just seems rather odd timing. "Diesel version doesn't work. We'll make an electric one even though we think they're stupid."
Nick 4:34PM (9/03/2009)
Fortitude is kind of dead when it comes to the Audi scene, IMO. Audizine and Audiworld tend to have way more activity. There are so few posts in the B7 forum I actually only visit there to look at the Audi Wheel classifieds, which are mostly from Vortex members....That being said, kudos to them for breaking a story.
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jeff 6:33PM (9/03/2009)
Electric R8 sounds great, we first heard about it a few weeks back, and Audi denied it at first. Looks like it is indeed true. Very funny after what's his face Johan from Audi dissing electric cars and the Volt.
Anybody else get pissed off by some of the cheesy facts on Audi's electricity unleashed site? "Lighting as 1,000,000 volts of power"? "The human body emits 250 Watts of electricity just sitting there"? These were written by somebody who thinks they know a lot more than they actually do about electricity.
(Volts are a unit of voltage, not power. 1,000,000 volts only becomes power when some amps start flowing, and you get watts). (The human body generates around 250 Watts of THERMAL energy, somebody read the fact, read the word "Watts" and immediately thought that must have something to do with electricity since his 60 "Watt" light bulb works on electricity.) /rant
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Gary 7:41PM (9/03/2009)
Didn't Johan de Nysschen of Audi North America imply that only idiots would buy an overpriced electric car?
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Kris 9:44PM (9/03/2009)
For those who car, Caddialac actually had full-led headlamps on the 08 Escalade Platinum Edition....oh, and only idiots would buy an electric Audi.
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Fred 4:01PM (9/04/2009)
Government Motors will be a subsidized basket case and laughing stock for the next 25 years when it will finally be allowed to die a natural death like the Yugo. They just don't get it, unless you have cars that people will actually buy and buy again and again, you fail. It's not what people say they want, but what they buy. Somewhere in there, I expect Goverment Motors to come out with a wind car with sails. While the whole thing will be sad, it will provide us with entertainment for more than a generation.
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