Audi says the Nuvolari will hit 62 mph in 2.6 seconds. There is a catch, and it sits in the fine print: the figure only holds when the battery is warm and well charged.
That battery is a 7.3 kWh lithium-ion pack, small by any electric-car measure. Newsweek reports that the quoted 0 to 100 km/h time, and a 200 km/h sprint in 6.8 seconds, require a battery temperature above 28°C and a state of charge above 80%. Warm it up first, in other words.
A hybrid built for bursts
Audi unveiled the car as the fastest and most powerful production vehicle in its history. It is the company’s first production supercar with a high-performance hybrid drivetrain, and only 499 will be built. Deliveries are scheduled for the first half of 2027, with Robb Report pointing to the second quarter.
The layout is a mid-mounted, twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 working with three axial flux electric motors. Two sit on the front axle. The third is placed between the engine and the transmission. Robb Report, citing Audi’s press release, lists each motor at 147.5 hp (110 kW), and says the front pair together produce 1,585.7 ft lbs of torque.
Headline output is 987 hp, which Newsweek gives as 1,001 PS. Top speed is above 217 mph. Until now the title of Audi’s quickest and strongest road car belonged to the RS e-tron GT Performance, a 912 hp sedan that Robb Report notes is limited to 155 mph.
Newsweek traces the V8 back to the one in the Lamborghini Temerario, retuned in both powertrain and chassis for Audi. A larger battery, slightly lower weight and more sophisticated energy management and stability control are what it credits for the extra performance.
Brakes, wing and body
Audi borrowed from its Formula 1 programme. The car uses what it calls quattro predictive ride, active aerodynamics and a new Audi Space Frame with a carbon exterior. The predictive system reads steering angle, yaw rate, acceleration and grip in real time and shifts torque, braking and aero balance before the driver asks for it.
The rear wing can vanish entirely or rise for low or high downforce, and the driver can take over with a dial. A Drag Reduction System is there for straight-line work.
Stopping power comes from a brake-by-wire setup that, in Audi’s words, offers “precise interaction between hydraulic braking and electric deceleration.” Up front are 420 mm discs with ten-piston calipers; at the rear, 410 mm discs with four-piston units. Audi claims improved cooling, up to 21 percent better heat dissipation according to Newsweek. The car also debuts forged center-lock wheels on a production Audi.
Drivers pick from four modes on a steering wheel rotary: E-Hybrid, the electric-only setting, plus Balanced, Dynamic and Dynamic+. A separate Track mode covers wet, dry, race and traction-control-off settings.
Name and price
The car is named for Tazio Nuvolari, the Italian racing driver who won in the 1930s with Auto Union, one of the marques that later merged into modern Audi. It is also the first production car to follow the “radical simplicity” design thinking of chief creative officer Massimo Frascella.
Newsweek expects pricing just under $600,000. Gernot Döllner, chairman of the board of management at Audi AG, framed the launch this way: “With the Audi Nuvolari, we are accelerating technological progress.”
Audi has said for years that the R8 would get no successor. The Nuvolari is not an R8, as Newsweek puts it: faster, more powerful, more limited and a good deal more expensive.
Sources
- The Audi Nuvolari Is a 987-HP Hybrid Supercar Limited to 499 Units – Newsweek
- The 987 HP Audi Nuvolari Supercar Is the Marque's Most Powerful Production Model Yet (Robb Report, via Yahoo)
