Audi Partners with Will Smith Again to Show Off RSQ e-tron

Audi has done a great job getting its cars into movies. From I, Robot to Iron Man, Audis have been driven by some Hollywood’s coolest stars, but now the realms of photography can’t keep up, so Audi has turned to animation to show off its latest supercar.

The RSQ e-tron, as it’s being called, will once again be driven by a character played by Will Smith–though this time it will likely not be destroyed by a group of robots played by Alan Tudyk (only time can tell for sure, though!)–in Spies in Disguise.

In fact, the name of this new car is even a callback to that destroyed Audi (Tudyk, smash!), the RSQ—which, gosh there’s a lot of history there and many layers of meaning to unpack.

The RSQ was inspired by the Le Mans Quattro concept, itself a followup to the Rosemeyer concept, all of which would become the R8. The R8, it’s worth noting, is currently sans followup. Although the facelift has just broken cover, the rumor mills continue to turn around the idea that there will no longer be a V10 combustion engine powering an Audi supercar.

It may also be important to note that the e–tron GT is coming to the LA Auto Show later this month and that this is not that.

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

This, instead, is a two-door supercar that looks suspiciously like an—oh, I dunno—electric R8? To be fair, it also looks like a non-shooting brake version of the PB 18 e-tron, but as we learned at the turn of the century, Audi’s concept cars can be evolutionary.

Now, of course, this is all speculative. The design is for an animated movie about superspies, so of course, it looks spectacular, and it doesn’t necessarily need to lead to an actual distinct model if it does its job advertising the e-tron brand.

Still, though, an electric supercar based loosely on Audi’s Formula E program would be a pretty good way of sticking it to Mercedes, whose combustion supercar based on an F1 car currently can’t idle under 5,000 rpm reliably. And German premium brands are nothing if not excited to stick it to one another.

Regardless you’ll have to wait a while to see the RSQ e-tron, because Spies in Disguise doesn’t even come out until next September.

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