Audi R8 e-tron claims glory
We have written before about electric cars setting records at the ‘ring. We wrote about Peugeot’s record in May of last year, which was in a concept vehicle. Then again, we wrote about Toyota’s record, with a full-blown electric race car in August. This time, we write about a production electric vehicle (EV) setting a new benchmark.
This R8 e-tron is really a beast of an electric car – if that doesn’t sound too conflicted. 375 horsepower and 604 foot-pounds of torque. Geared for speed rather than acceleration, it can achieve at least 155 miles per hour, which it was capable of for this record setting attempt. Top speed will be governed to 125 mph for we mere civilians (read – not race-car drivers). Still, zero-to-62 mph comes up in a mere 4.6 seconds. Plenty quick for those runs to the grocery store.
The production vehicle is slated to be available by the end of the year. The lithium-ion battery in the R8 e-tron will hold 49 kilowatt hours of juice, which Audi says should provide a range of 133 miles. The car is heavy (as one would expect with that gigantic battery pack), weighing in at 3,924 pounds. Even at that, when limited to its 125 mph top speed, the e-tron turned in two lap times of 8 minutes 30 seconds, and one of 8:26. How did it do when it was uncapped? 8:09:099 – almost dropping into the seven minute range. Very impressive for a production based electric car. With the least expensive R8 currently starting at $114,000 plus, we don’t expect to be running out to get one anytime soon, however much fun it sounds like.