2017 Audi R8 e-tron All-Electric Sports Car: Live Photos From Geneva Motor Show

The all-new Audi R8 sports car was officially unveiled today at the Geneva Motor Show, including the limited-production R8 e-tron battery electric version.

Audi had previously released some advance information—including the first official details—about the all-electric R8 e-tron sports car that will soon follow the gasoline version, likely as a 2017 model.

The R8 e-tron information arrived earlier than expected; company officials previously suggested that new electric and plug-in hybrid versions of the R8 would appear some time after the base car’s launch.

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Given the timing on details, we suspect the all-electric e-tron could be mere months behind the gasoline model's anticipated late-summer market launch.

Such a car would compete with the BMW i8, as well as with several niche models, like the Detroit Electric SP:01.

And the plug-in hybrid version of the R8 that's also on the way might be compared with the i8 and the upcoming Acura NSX, a hybrid sports car that will also have a mid-engine layout.

This is the second version of the R8 e-tron. The previous version was on-again, off-again for several cycles as Audi struggled to get the car’s packaging and battery technology right.

Much larger battery

The previous 49-kilowatt-hour battery pack simply wasn’t going to cut it in a high-performance sports car.

To provide for a German necessity—the Autobahn—the previous version simply wouldn’t maintain speeds close to its 124-mph top speed for longer than about 20 minutes.

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With a much larger 92-kWh battery pack (nearly four times the capacity of a Nissan Leaf), the new R8 e-tron should finally carry enough energy onboard to deliver strong performance, or return a much-improved driving range of 280 miles.

That’s far more than the previous version’s 134 miles; on the performance side it makes around 455 horsepower and up to 679 pound-feet of torque.