Audi Officially Kills The R8 e-tron Sports Car

I'm shocked shocked there's gambling in Casablanca. Audi ventures into electric cars has been all show and nothing on the ground.

Is anyone surprised? The world already has Tesla.

Surprised? Not. Disappointed? Very much so.

It's not to be expected that a manufacturer with an existing reputation, deeply-entrenched in an older, but still profitable technology, will be the one to pioneer alternative technologies. While Tesla is experiencing early success, there are still obstacles to overcome and things to be proven long term. Audi and others are going to keep developing their electric-drive technology and promoting it as if it's just around the corner so that people don't think they're behind, but they're certainly not going to take any risks by putting out mediocre, me-too products, even if they run the risk of irritating people with their on-again/off-again production announcements. Only time will tell whether they can put out the right product at the right time, but I don't think any current ICE manufacturer will try to do it before Tesla has worked out the kinks.

Well, "a manufacturer with an existing reputation, deeply-entrenched in an older, but still profitable technology [not expected to] be the one to pioneer alternative technologies" on a couple of occasions in the past 25 years has done just that, and what is almost shocking is that manufacturer is GM. First, they did it with the EV1 and more recently with the Volt and the Spark EV. Sure, GM does not quite exemplify the commitment to EVs the way Tesla does, but they have done it. Another manufacturer or an alliance of two if you wish, Renault-Nissan has basically bet the house on EVs. A third one, which is rather small and barely clinging to their US market, Mitsubishi, has released an unappreciated EV and a PHEV SUV. And last but not least, Ford currently has three different plugins on the US market. Even Fiat, which through their CEO has openly stated their opposition to EVs has made a very impressive 500e.

The technology is not just around the corner, it is here, now, and it has been for a while now. Some of the EV cars sure look mediocre, but many are rather impressive and roughly all do what they are intended to do very well, and that is to remove the oil dependency from everyday personal transportation.

The new Audi A3 e-tron will be sold this year, at least in Europe. This plug-in hybrid needs only one gallon of gas for about 185 miles. The electric range is 50 km, after which the 1.4-liter TFSI gasoline engine kicks in. "204 hp with 350 Nm of torque and promises quite sporty performance." 7.6 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph).
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Pictures: A3 e-tron
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As for the Audi R8 e-tron, the title is complete nonsense that "Audi Officially Kills The R8 e-tron Sports Car". All Audi said is that "currently, it has no plans to sell its all-electric R8 e-tron sports car" at this time and that it is continuing to develop and test the R8 e-tron and use lessons learned on its other electric vehicles.

Audi is doing the right thing with the R8 e-tron. Audi obviously wasn't satisfied with the battery limitations in terms of the cost, limited range and long charging times, especially given Europe's many countries.

As I showed the other day, the demand for full-electric vehicles (Tesla, Chevy Volt, etc.) is miniscule at the moment in the USA -- only 0.003% of the total number of cars sold. There is no rational reason to jump into buying an electric vehicle today -- those who have taken the plunge could suffer problems over the next three years typical of early adopters of any new technology. Better for Audi to keep developing, testing and refining its high-end electric cars than prematurely sell it for the sake of being quick to market. Audi was one of the last major carmakers to sell an SUV -- yet Audi SUVs are highly desired today.

How did Tony Stark get his hands on one?