Audi axed its electric supercar, per report

The Audi R8 e-tron is dead if a report from Car and Driver is to be believed. The production version of the car was unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Auto Show and apparently Audi produced fewer than 100 vehicles — which sported a $1.1 million window sticker each.

When announced, the e-tron seemed like a key part of Audi’s future. Built in the same vein as the R8, the e-tron sat on top of Audi’s line as a shining electric halo. A 92 kWh battery-powered two electric motors provided 456 horsepower and 679 pound-feet of torque. This resulted in an acceptable but not neck-snapping zero to 60 mph time of 3.9 seconds.

The e-tron was the only R8 model available with rear-wheel drive. The rest of the model range was equipped with all-wheel drive.

The e-tron was Audi’s entrant into the automobile world’s EV supercar race. When the concept was announced in 2010, many automakers were producing one-off electric concepts of various flavors. Mercedes-Benz went upscale with the SLS AMG coupe electric drive, while BMW turned the stunning BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics into a relatively affordable hybrid supercar.

So where does this leave Audi? The German automaker currently sells the A3 e-tron, an affordable plug-in hybrid hatchback. But owned by Volkswagen, Audi likely has several major EV projects in the pipeline, though none have been detailed. And none will be as gorgeous as the e-tron.