Electric Audi R8 successor set for debut ‘mid-decade’

With little having been said about the replacement for the Audi R8 this year, the German automaker has broken its silence on the third generation due to be revealed “mid-decade”.

Confirmed to be an all-electric model as per Ingolstadt’s switch away of internal combustion engines by 2026, Audi Sport boss, Sebastian Grams, in a lengthy interview with Britain’s Autocar, remarked that the replacement will the closet thing to a GT3-spec race car with around 60% being identical to the current R8 GT3.

While not officially signed-off, the executive stated, “I’m fighting for [an R8 successor] and so are the board of Audi. We are looking at different kinds of concepts, and the direction is electrified. If I get my wish, it will be an R8 that’s electric. And if you do a super-sports car, then it’s a two-door concept.

Until now planned to be hybrid marrying the smaller 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 engine with an electric motor, a setup rumoured for the RS7 back in 2017, Grams said the recent success of Audi’s e-tron models, headed by the RS e-tron GT, proves that electric is the way forward.

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“We have already proven that it is possible to generate RS love in an electric model. If you look at the E-tron GT, 60% of sales are RS. With the RS E-tron GT, we are the [electric] forerunner in a field of competitors,” he said.

“We need to be brave, as we were with the first-generation R8. It was a brave decision to make that car. We need to be innovative and transform into the electric world and digitalisation.”

No longer set to arrive in 2023 as previously reported, a year in which production of the current model is now set to end, the publication further reports that the newcomer will indeed have a different name and reportedly ride on Porsche’s recently commissioned SSP Platform poised to underpin the next generation Taycan, 718 Boxster and Cayman.

Expect more details to become apparent over the coming months.