Audi is reportedly planning a purely electric successor to the R8 combustion engine sports car, which will be phased out in 2023. A separate platform is being developed for this, but it uses components of the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP). According to a report by Autocar, this emerges from statements made by Audi’s head of development, Oliver Hoffmann.
So far, the brand with the four rings uses two electric car platforms: the MEB for the Q4 e-tron and the J1 architecture for the Audi e-tron GT. As is well known, from 2024 Audi will be bringing several models based on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE), including the Q6 e-tron, the A6 e-tron, and the A6 e-Tron Avant. At the end of the decade, the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) will be launched, on which, among other things, the Audi model with the code name Trinity will be based.
In the future, the MEB will also be used for other Audi entry-level models, as Audi Chief Development Officer Oliver Hoffmann said at the IAA. When asked whether one of the platforms mentioned would be considered for sportier electric cars such as an electric TT or an electric R8, the manager said that a tailor-made sports car architecture would be used for this. This would use elements of SSP. The platform, which Hoffmann described as a toolkit, would be a combination of MEB and PPE.
Both the Audi TT and the Audi R8 will be phased out in 2023. Hoffmann did not comment directly on possible successors. But he said that it was being worked on. In the next two years, Audi will bring almost 20 new products onto the market – more than 50 percent of which will be battery-electric.
The SSP platform is expected to carry around 80 percent of the VW Group’s cars. The platform supports drives with over 1,200 kW, as CEO Oliver Blume has already revealed. The high-performance value suggests that electric sports cars and electric super sports cars based on SSP are also planned. Hoffmann confirmed that Audi will introduce its first SSP-based electric vehicles “in the very early phase” of the platform.
Unnamed Audi insiders have previously told Autocar that Audi is working on an electric successor to the R8. They will remain true to the formula with two doors, racing features, and superior performance.
Audi had already presented an electric sports car with the PB 18 e-tron in 2018 (report at Motor1 ). The study, also called AI: Race (article on the Audi website), was 4.53 meters long and only 1.15 meters high. The drive should be provided by three powerful electric motors – one at the front and two at the rear. The latter drove one wheel directly via half shafts. The system output was 500 kW, and 570 kW was available for a short time. The 100 km/h sprint should take a good two seconds.
The liquid-cooled solid-state battery with 95 kWh should enable over 500 WLTP kilometers. Thanks to the 800-volt system, you should be able to fully charge the battery in just 15 minutes. Shortly after the presentation, it was said that the car would come onto the market within two years, but only in a small series of 50 units.
