The manual transmission will no longer be offered.
Audi board member for technical development Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, told CarAdvice that the next generation Audi R8 will debut within the next 60 days at the Geneva Motor Show, which takes place in the first week of March.
Dr. Hackenberg further revealed that the new R8 will benefit from an e-tron electric variant, and that this time, Audi will actually put it to production (Audi built limited number of prototypes of the previous R8 e-tron, but didn't make it commercially). The new R8 e-tron is reported to have a range in excess of 400 km.
Coming back to the regular R8, the publication reports that the second generation version of the supercar will not come with a manual transmission; only a dual-clutch gearbox will be on offer. The platform of the second gen R8 is reported to be borrowed from the Lamborghini Huracan, which went on sale in India last year.
Also read: 2016 Audi Q7 debuts at the 2015 NAIAS
Audi India sells the R8 in Coupe and Convertible variants, with the former being available in the Plus and LMX high-performance guises. Expect the new R8 to launch in India early next year.
Competitors: Porsche 911, Jaguar F-Type
Expected Price: INR 1.7 Crores upwards
Launch date: 2015 in Europe
[Source - CarAdvice]
