Audi's R8 sports car now comes with an all-electric option

For someone like me, an event like the Geneva Motor Show can be an alien experience. I'm an electronics geek, more accustomed to reviewing things that fit into pockets, but here I am gazing upon a show floor massed with four-wheeled gas guzzlers. That gap of familiarity is gradually being bridged, however, as carmakers embrace electric motors and produce more powerful and beautiful electric cars than ever before. There are more battery-powered headliners this year than ever, and one of them is Audi's R8 sports car, which now includes an e-tron option.

Instead of the V10 petrol engine that can take the R8 to 100kmh in 3.2 seconds, the e-tron model uses only electric power to achieve a 3.9-second 0-to-100 time. That's still some pretty awesome acceleration, but the real innovation of this new electric car is in the density of its battery. Audi has almost doubled energy storage — from 49kWh on its first electric platform to the current 92kWh — and done so without requiring any extra space. Energy density has, as a result, grown from 84Wh/kg to 154Wh/kg. With a few modifications made to the electric version of the car — such as the crazy-looking wheels that appear specifically designed to minimize drag — this combines for a claimed range in excess of 450km / 279.6 miles.

Read Full Article here: http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/4/8143277/audi-r8-e-tron-electric-sports-car-geneva-motor-show