Audi Is Not Planning Any Future R8s Beyond This Generation

The Audi R8 could suddenly find itself running on borrowed time, with reports suggesting there’s no planned replacement.

In a round-table interview at the Geneva Motor Show, Audi’s R&D chief Peter Mertens is said to have told journalists that there are no plans to replace the R8 with a like-for-like new model, meaning the R8 as we know it could be doomed.

While there is a twin-turbo V6 in development to fit the R8 chassis, which will be a hell of a change from the glorious naturally-aspirated V10 we know and love deeply, the car’s eventual replacement will almost certainly be electrified.

Talking about the R8’s future, Mertens said the R8 has a “long life” left in it and that a direct replacement wasn’t impossible yet, but that there were no plans to do so, apparently because the development budget has been reallocated to batteries, motors and associated EV technologies.

There will at least be faster versions of whatever electrified cars come out of the Audi stable in the future. Mertens was quoted as saying that performance cars are “very good for Audi.”

Fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars are likely, alongside pure combustion-powered cars in whatever form they take before being banned in various countries.

Source: Car & Driver