Let us acknowledge a few things up front. First, the forthcoming Audi Nuvolari supercar is going to be exceedingly rare. Only 499 units are scheduled to be built worldwide, and we don’t know yet how many will make it to North America. The answer is likely not many. You’ll see a few – eventually – but the Nuvolari will be one of the rarest production cars in recent memory.
Secondly, it will be expensive. Likely very. During the R8’s final model year in 2023, the US MSRP ranged roughly between $158K and $249K depending on trim and powertrain. The 987-horsepower Nuvolari will likely blow those numbers away. Some projections we’ve seen are in the $700,000 USD range. And for our neighbors up north it could hit $1 million CAD.
Third, like all supercars, it’s not for us. It’s a toy for the ultra-rich. But that’s the nature of supercars. They’re designed to be aspirational, to be halo vehicles for brands that serve as technology carriers for the rest of an automaker’s lineup.
If you’ve been following the Nuvolari’s development at all, these points are old news. Rare supercar = super expensive, tech carrier. Of course. Makes perfect sense. Other supercars have similar positioning.
Beyond the obvious appeal of the Nuvolari – rare, expensive, and ultra-fast (0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds) – is what its pending arrival means for the future of Audi writ large. Incidentally, the Nuvolari is slated to go on sale in the first half of 2027, with ordering to being in late 2026 in Europe. No word yet on North American availability, but it will likely be late 2027 at the earliest.
Back to what the Nuvolari means for the future of Audi. Here’s what company leadership has been saying about the car in recent weeks.
“The Audi Nuvolari brings pure emotion and performance to the road. It also reveals how we are taking ‘Vorspung durch Technik’ into a new era,” CEO Gernot Döller said in a statement.
In the same statement, he went on to say, “with the Audi Nuvolari, we are accelerating technological progress and demonstrating that the company is picking up the pace – in development, decision-making, and innovation.”
He also paid homage to the company’s Formula One efforts by saying, “team spirit and the drive for continuous improvement place Formula One teams in pole position. This exactly the mindset we are imbedding at Audi.”
More interesting, as it pertains to future Audis, are comments from Chief Creative Officer Massimo Frascella. “The Audi Nuvolari will be our first production model to express ‘The Radical Next’ as a new way of thinking. A philosophy built on the understanding that, at its best, Audi is an unmistakable combination of clarity, technicality, intelligence, and emotion,” he said in a statement.
This makes us wonder how much of the Nuvolari will make it into future Audis, such as its interior, which is a radical departure from those in the current lineup.
An interesting tidbit of inside baseball of the Nuvolari’s development is Audi’s relationship with Lamborghini, which falls under the former in the Volkswagen Group org chart.
For instance, there are a lot of similarities under the skin between the Nuvolari and the new Lamborghini Temerario. Both cars are plug-in hybrids that are powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. Interestingly, the Nuvolari is slightly more powerful (80 hp total), but both cars share the same basic DNA.
We look forward to learning more about the Nuvolari as its launch gets closer and we’ll likely have more to say going forward.
For more about the Nuvolari’s development, go here.
Photos courtesy of Audi AG
