In the past few months, the fate of the Audi R8 e-tron was up and down, having been delayed so many times we've already lost count. Today, British magazine AutoCar reports that the R8 E-tron will be built after all, but only for internal testing and development. Audi->ke14 will build a total of ten units, but none of these units will be offered to customers.

It looks like this decision was made because the battery technology hasn't advanced as fast as Audi has anticipated. Plus, production costs are still ridiculously expensive making the car out-of-reach as a production model.

While this isn't an official statement coming from the company, other rumors seem to suggest that Audi is not also very happy with the limited range and long charging times offered by the current battery technology.

Even so, Audi has declared many times in the past that it has "acquired extensive expertise that will benefit its electrified production models." So even with this latest bout of speculation, we're still keeping our eyes and ears open on any further developments surrounding a production version of the R8 E-tron.

Click past the jump to read more about the Audi R8 E-tron.

Audi R8 E-tron

The Audi R8 E-tron is powered by four electric motors - two on the front and two in the rear axles. This system delivers a total of 313 hp and 3,319 pound-feet of torque and will sprint the car from 0 to 62 mph in 4.8 seconds and up to a top speed of 124.27 mph.

The power for the electric motors will be supplied by liquid-cooled, lithium ion batteries which can be powered by your household current of 230 volts/16 amperes. Charging time is about 6-8 hours when the battery has been completely depleted and goes down to about 2.5 hours when high voltage is used. These charged up motors offer an autonomy of 155 miles.