After launching the e-tron SUV last year, Audi has announced plans to put the exciting e-torn GT into production as well. Interestingly, it will not be made at the same facility in Belgium, but alongside the R8 supercar in Germany.
The new is official and strange, to say the least. The Audi R8 is produced in a production site specifically built for the sports car – the Böllinger Höfe in Heilbronn. In 2011, Audi acquired a 23-hectare site in the industrial park in Heilbronn and opened its logistics center and the R8 production facility there in 2014.
The park, which is a 10-minute drive from Neckarsulm only has about 70 workers cranking out between eight and fifteen cars a day, with some operations being done by hand. They do have the robots that can hold up and weld a spaceframe, which is similar to the demands for a large EV battery, but the scale is off.
Audi did say that it was expanding the facility by 10,000 square meters (about 108,000 square feet) to allow for a bigger body shop and assembly areas. But it kind of feels like the e-tron GT will completely replace the R8 here, since the two have nothing in common other than the badge. Maybe this has something to do with the PB18 e-tron, the electric supercar that looked kind of like an R8.
“Since the Böllinger Höfe was already created in the design phase as a small-series production facility with innovative and flexible production processes, that gives us the ideal conditions to produce the e-tron GT alongside the Audi R8,” production manager Wolfgang Schanz said. “Here a unique combination of craftsmanship and smart factory is coming to life.”
We'll remind you that the e-tron GT is a four-door coupe that promised some serious performance, at least in concept form. It had 590 horsepower and performance similar to the RS7. Audi did try to turn the R8 into an e-tron EV as well, but the project never took off.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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