This is the last Audi R8 V10

The last Audi R8 V10 supercar has been built after almost 18 years of production, with an electric replacement yet to be announced by the German car maker – and is therefore years away.

A bright 'Vegas Yellow' R8 Performance Quattro coupe with a carbon-fibre pack, and 20-inch bronze and silver alloy wheels was the final car to roll off the Bollinger Hofe production line in Germany on Friday 22 March.

Since 2006, 44,418 Audi R8s have been produced for global sale across two generations, initially offered with a 4.2-litre V8 and two-door coupe body style, with a convertible ‘Spyder’ model and a V10 engine added later.

Audi Australia sold its last R8 in 2022 with 687 sales locally since its 2007 introduction, including a best annual result of 103 posted the following year.

Production of the R8 was previously though to finish at the end of 2023 however – amid a late-life surge in demand – its life did not conclude until March 2024.

The Audi R8 shares its platform and 5.2-litre V10 engine with the Lamborghini Huracan – with both Audi and Lamborghini part of the Volkswagen Group – with production of the Lamborghini also set to end later this year.

All remaining Huracans – including those yet to be built – have been sold already, the car maker has said.

Unlike Audi, Lamborghini has locked in a successor to the Huracan – the smaller of the Italian brand’s two supercars – expected to use a twin-turbo V8 with plug-in hybrid assistance in place of the existing V10 engine.

A global reveal of the new yet-to-be-named Lamborghini sports car is expected in the second half of 2024.

For Audi fans, the R8 is the second sports car from the German brand to be dropped, following the last Audi TT being built in November 2023.

The TT may return as an electric sports car using Porsche components from 2028.

Audi has denied reports it is working on a electric supercar, which may indicate the R8 will not return to showrooms until the second half of the decade – after a plan to see all new Audis launched from 2026 be electric.

It also plans to phase out all internal combustion engines from its showrooms outside of China by 2033.

The end of V10 Audi production has also seen the formal end of new R8s for customer racing.

The R8 has achieved significant on-track success in sports-car racing, including three outright victories at the Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race (2011, 2012 and 2018).

Australian outfit Melbourne Performance Centre (MPC) switched to racing the Lamborghini Huracan following the news of the R8’s demise – given the technical similarities of the two cars – with it likely to continue with the follow-up Lamborghini for sports car racing in Australia.

Audi will enter Formula One in 2026 after a full buyout of the Kick Sauber tea, with a new set of regulations coming into effect the same year.

Photo credit, top of story: Audi Tradition historical collection on Instagram