Sometimes, the basic information you need to know about a car is right in its name. Audi has announced the imminent unveiling of a concept named PB 18 e-tron. We know it will make its public debut in late August during the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and it’s powered by an electric drivetrain.
That’s a good start, but everything else — including the car’s design — remains under wraps. Audi released a dark teaser image that depicts the silhouette of a wide, low-slung car with LED headlights. It was designed by Audi’s Design Loft in Malibu, California. It looks like an ultra-quick supercar with pronounced fenders and a sizable windshield, and Audi points out that it receives some of the technology features inaugurated on the race track by the Le Mans-winning R18 e-tron.
We also see some features borrowed from the upcoming e-tron quattro, an electric SUV Audi will introduce in September and release globally in the coming months. The PB 18 e-tron uses the same rearview cameras as the e-tron quattro. They’re much thinner than conventional door mirrors so they reduce the car’s drag coefficient and boost range. The e-tron will offer cameras as an option when it goes on sale, though the technology hasn’t been approved in the United States yet.
Audi will reveal the PB 18 e-tron on August 23 on the Laguna Seca racetrack in central California. The concept will then participate in the annual Concours d’Elegance, where it will be displayed on the concept lawn alongside historic race cars and production models from Audi’s collection.
It’s too early to tell what the future holds for the PB 18 e-etron. Audi’s electric car offensive will start with the e-tron quattro and continue in 2019 with the reveal of a second, sportier model with a design inspired by the Elaine concept. The floodgates will open after that.
“Shortly after [the Elaine], we’re going to have battery-electric vehicles one after the other, cranking out a lot of vehicles,” Peter Mertens, the head of Audi’s research and development department, told Digital Trends last year. We’ll have to wait until Audi fully unveils the PB 18 e-tron to find out if its product plan includes a gasoline-free supercar.
Volkswagen Group fight! Volkswagen Group fight! It’s not just Bugatti and Lamborghini revealing new, ultra-fast shards of carbon fibre exclusivity at the Pebble Beach festival of prosecco and red corduroy trousers next month. Audi is also bringing a secret supercar design study to California. Oh yes, it’s Audi vs Lambo vs Bugatti for the limelight.
Audi’s show star is the PB 18 e-tron, which it’s billing as “a design study for a puristic sports car of the future”. All we’ve seen so far is this moody teaser shot, hinting at a low, wide, marauding supercar with cameras instead of door mirrors mounted at roof level, like an ant’s antenna.
And what Audi would be complete without a blazing pair of LED running light motifs searing themselves into your eyeballs? Check. It’ll be attempting to steal focus from the new, Nürburgring-conquering Lamborghini Aventador SVJ and Bugatti’s Divo track-special.
It’s about time Audi tied in its enormous Le Mans racing success with its road cars, and the company promises “the Audi R18 e-tron’s technology inspired the solutions for various details” of the PB 18. For several obvious reasons, this newcomer ain’t going to be a diesel, though. Audi dubs the car as producing “emotion instead of emissions” thanks to “powerful electric drive”. We’re very excited.
Laguna Seca raceway has been chosen as the PB 18’s reveal location. Reports of Lamborghini and Bugatti operatives sneaking around the track with oil and banana skins in hand are unconfirmed at this time.