From the Apex · Launch Mode · 2026-06-09

The most powerful Audi ever isn't electric. It's a twin-turbo V8.

Audi promised an all-electric future. Its new 1,001 PS halo, the Nuvolari, turned up with a twin-turbo V8.

• The most powerful Audi ever made runs a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, not a battery.
• 1,001 PS combined, 0-100 km/h in 2.6 seconds, over 350 km/h.
• Only 499 will be built, at a reported €600,000 - over ₹5 crore before Indian duties.
• Audi spent years promising it would stop developing new petrol cars.

Audi spent years promising to go all-electric. Its new flagship, the most powerful production car it has ever built, runs a twin-turbo V8.

Audi pulled the covers off the Nuvolari on 4 June 2026, the spiritual heir to the R8 and the fastest, most powerful production car the four rings have made. At its centre sits a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, 800hp on its own and happy to 10,000rpm, fed by three axial-flux electric motors for a combined 1,001 PS. It clears 100km/h in 2.6 seconds, 200km/h in 6.8, and runs beyond 350km/h. The carbon body over an aluminium space frame is a first for Audi; only 499 will be built, priced at a reported €600,000, comfortably north of ₹5 crore, with deliveries from early 2027.

The story isn't the speed. It's the engine. This is the brand that told the world it would stop developing new petrol cars and go electric, and the car meant to embody everything Audi stands for arrived with eight cylinders and a 7.3kWh battery small enough for a hatchback. The name revives a 1930s racing legend and a 2003 concept; the timing rides Audi's first Formula 1 season. Whatever the roadmap promised, Audi's statement car answers to petrol.

The design is doing heritage work too: the name and racing colours salute Tazio Nuvolari and the Auto Union Silver Arrows of Audi's ancestor, even as the pared-back bodywork debuts a deliberately new Audi design language nobody can agree on yet.

The electric future can wait. The loudest thing Audi has ever built just turned up with a V8.