Audi E-Tron Production Greenlighted

Last month at the Frankfurt Auto Show, the Audi E-Tron Concept debuted. Ahead of the car's launch, rumors were running rampant about a production announcement of an electric R8.

That didn't quite turn out to be true, but the speculation instead resulted in the E-Tron concept, which is clearly based on the R8. The car certainly didn't seem like a production preview though. Apparently the car has been greenlighted for production!

The news isn't just based on anonymous sources either - it's coming right from Audi's North American head Johan de Nysschen. He says that Audi will be testing complete prototypes of the car within 24 months. The production version is to follow within a 3 year time frame, meaning the end of 2012 at the latest.

This is surprising! It's only been a month since the concept's introduction, and there wasn't any indication that a production model was in the works. Hopefully the car will have some of the styling cues on the E-Tron Concept rather than just being an electric R8. Given the fact that a lot of them were for aerodynamic reasons, I could see this being the case.

With four electric motors (at each wheel) and a lithium-ion battery pack that has the equivalent of 313 horsepower and 3,319 lb-ft (!) of torque, the electric R8 could be providing some serious competition to the Tesla Roadster.