Overall weight is 1780kg. The chassis is absolutely chocka with exotic components to cut weight versus the standard R8. The heavy engine and gearbox are absent of course, too. But that doesn't offset the mass of the huge battery. At least it sits low and centrally in the car, so it isn't bad for cornering.
The battery is so big it takes 14 hours to charge off the normal mains - that's why there's a fast-charger too. It gives a range of 135 miles in the standard drive cycle test, but they admit it falls to 100 miles in quick road driving. As an extreme test, they went to the Nurburgring, started with it fully charged, did two laps flat out (just over 16 minutes) and didn't have the juice to complete a third.
There are two options available for charging the battery: A full charge with 230-volt alternating current from the domestic mains takes about twelve hours. Charging with direct current cuts the time required to less than one hour, depending on the connected load. The driver can control and monitor a wide range of functions and information remotely by smartphone app, including the charge status, the interior heating and the range display. This is a customized service from Audi connect, which is also used in a very similar form in models such as the A3 Sportback e-tron.
With a weight distribution of 42:58, the R8 e-tron is equipped with just the right basis for sporty handling. The battery is located between the axles, with a low installed position that lowers the vehicle center of gravity. Racing driver Markus Winkelhock established two new records for electric-drive production vehicles with the R8 e-tron on the Nürburgring North Loop. He clocked up 8:09.099 minutes for the fastest single lap and 16:56.966 minutes for two successive laps. For the single lap he drove on sports tires approved for a top speed of 250 km/h (155.34 mph), and used standard tires with a 200 km/h (124.27 mph) speed limit for the double lap.
The interior of the Audi R8 e-tron features elegant CFRP surfaces, soft leather and Alcantara. The sport bucket seats have a CFRP chassis; each of them weighs only 17.6 kilograms (38.80 lb). In the instrument cluster, LED strips indicate the coolant temperature and battery charge level. The large powermeter presents the level of power output and energy recovery on a scale from 0 to 100 percent. There is a 7‑inch color monitor for the driver information system; together with the MMI monitor it shows all important facts about electric driving. These include power consumption (in kW/h per 100 km), the chosen energy recovery level, the amount of energy recovered and an animated graphic of the energy flow. In addition, the range is displayed graphically in the navigation system's map view.
The driving position, dated dash and wide-stance when you’re behind the wheel are a carbon copy, but the throttle behavior braking and steering are all unique to this R8. Inside, there’s a 7mm thick TFT screen (straight out of the A3) for the reversing camera, as there’s no rear windscreen – that’s been binned to save weight too, as well as increasing body stiffness (up 40 per cent). The 19-inch alloys also have clever carbon covers that close to create a flatter, more aerodynamic surface at speeds of more than 50km/h. This helps achieve a Cd of 0.23, a 0.02 improvement over petrol R8s.
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