The Audi R8 May Not Be Dead After All

Remember the Audi R8? You probably do – it was built for the best part of two decades and it’s been less than a year since it went out of production.

When the last example left the factory in Böllinger Höfe, Germany at the end of last March, we sort of assumed that was that for the car that marked Audi’s entry to the supercar market, and that any potential replacement would be fully electric.

Of course, things have changed somewhat in the car market since then, and supercars powered solely by electricity are proving a rather tricky sell – see the death of the Maserati MC20 Folgore, for instance.

That’s why we’re intrigued by rumours, first reported by Autocar, that a third generation R8 could be on the way after all, this time as a plug-in hybrid based on the new Lamborghini Temerario.

Of course, the first two generations of R8 shared plenty with the junior Lambo supercars of their day – first the Gallardo, then the Huracan – so it’s little surprise that a potential R8 revival could be based on the latest car in that lineage.

The new model, the engineering of which is reportedly in progress, will reportedly share a platform with the Temerario as well as its plug-in hybrid powertrain, which consists of a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 powering the rear wheels and a trio of electric motors – one on the rear axle, two on the front.

In the Lambo, that makes for a peak power output of 907bhp (although faster, harder versions are thought to be in the works). Whether the reputed third-gen R8 will get a similar power output remains to be seen – the first two generations were typically a little down on power compared to the equivalent Lambos.

If these rumours prove true – and for now, they very much are just rumours – then we can reportedly expect to see the new R8 the year after next. As for what it could look like, the last peep we heard from Audi regarding a future supercar was 2018’s PB18 concept, later renamed the AI:RACE. At one point, it was reportedly in line for a limited production run, but that never materialised.