it’s compact but beautifully proportioned

Audi revealed the shape of its much-rumoured ‘baby R8’ when it unveiled its second ‘e-tron’ concept car.

The new electric concept is much smaller than the first ‘e-tron’ revealed at last year’s Frankfurt show. It is also far more significant than first meets the eye. During an exclusive interview with VW head of development Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, evo discovered that the second e-tron concept shares its basic structure with the VW Bluesport Roadster, virtually confirming that it is in fact Audi’s much-anticipated baby R8, already dubbed the R4.

To give you a sense of scale, the latest e-tron concept is just 3.9-metres long, making it 25cm shorter than a current Audi TT and just 12cm longer than a Lotus Elise. So it’s very compact but also beautifully proportioned – in the metal you would hardly guess it was that diminutive.

The concept car has been built around an aluminium spaceframe, with body panels made from carbonfibre- reinforced plastic, a material that we know the VW group intends to introduce on its production cars very soon, possibly starting with the next- generation Lamborghini LP670-4, due later this year.

The basic mechanical package for the ‘R4’ coupe will come from the next-generation VW Polo. Dr Hackenberg was keen to stress that much work was being done to simplify the sharing of components across the VW brands, pointing out there are often as many as 12 different engine options available on just one model. It was essential to reduce this number in future because it was so expensive getting each engine correctly installed and signed off for production.

Dr Hackenberg said the decision on whether to build the VW Bluesport had taken longer than he had hoped, due to the crisis in the car market during 2009, which diverted attention towards introducing CO2-saving technology as soon as possible. But the Bluesport Roadster was now a top priority, with a decision due to be taken in the next four to six weeks. He said a positive outcome hinged on there being three different versions of the basic car within the VW group. Our interpretation of that is to expect a production version of the Bluesport Roadster for VW, this ‘R4’ coupe for Audi and a brand new, as yet unseen, Porsche version, which will sit below the current Boxster range and will come equipped with a mid-mounted, in-line 4-cylinder engine (much like the 914 in fact), rather than the flat-six engine used by Porsche in all its sports cars at the moment.

It all points to a very exciting future of new, affordable sports cars from the huge VW machine, perfectly timed for today’s more restrained times. Let’s just hope the VW board makes the right decision in a few weeks’ time.