Audi's diesel-electric concept car is now available.

In 2012, Audi's then head of research and development, Wolfgang Dürheimer, announced that Audi was considering launching a diesel-powered hybrid supercar.

Audi was serious about the project, as evidenced by the fact that a concept was built. Known as the Scorpion, the concept was never publicly presented, but is now on public display at the August Horch Museum in Zwickau, Germany.

According to the museum, the concept was developed to explore the vehicle's exterior design and aerodynamics. The design was clearly inspired by an early version of Audi's highly successful Le Mans Sport Prototype R18, but the chassis was based on Audi's DTM competition chassis of the time.

If the project had been approved, the car would have also taken technology from the R18 racing car, specifically the R18 E-Tron Quattro, which combined a diesel engine and two electric motors and was unbeatable at Le Mans from 2012 to 2014.

Performance figures mentioned for 2012 include a total output of 700 hp, a 0-60 mph time of less than 3 seconds, and a top speed of over 200 mph.

A year after Duerheimer first mentioned the project, he was reassigned as CEO of Bentley and Bugatti, brands of the same Volkswagen Group. This eliminated any possibility of Audi developing a hybrid supercar; with the end of R8 production in March, Audi currently has no supercars. Audi plans to launch only electric vehicles after 2026, so no gas or diesel combustion engines will be employed.

Interestingly, Porsche also spent the last decade exploring the idea of launching a supercar inspired by its own 919 Hybrid Le Mans Sport prototype. Porsche began work on a concept car in 2017, but ultimately abandoned the project, as did its VW Group sibling a few years earlier.