Every so often a major car manufacturer will team up with a bike brand to produce a bike that will usually look quite impressive, and may even turn out to be quite desirable – but if there's one thing that's absolutely certain then that's the fact it'll cost a small fortune.
This leads us nicely onto the Audi Sport e-tron, an electric mountain bike that's Audi branded and made by Haibike. The price tag, you ask? A cool €15,300.
To be fair to the Sport e-tron, this isn't a simple case of rebranding at a premium – rather the spec of this bike has been chosen specifically for this 120mm cross country model. The closest bike we could find to the Audi from Haibike's current range was the €15,000 XDURO FullSeven Carbon Ultimate.
At 18.2kg the 120mm Audi bike is actually 1kg heavier than the aforementioned at 18.2kg (40lbs) but its spec sheet swaps out the Fox and Rockshox suspension in favour of carbon parts from DT Swiss. Its six-spoke carbon wheels are also switched in favour of DT's partiuclarly lightweight XMC 1200 spline wheelset. At the heart of the bike is a Bosch CX mid-mounted motor, which puts out 250 watts of power and a maximum 75Nm of torque. Juice comes from a 500w 36v battery mounted at the down tube.
Also included is a Shimano XTR Di2 groupset, Magura MT-8 brakes and a Selle Italia Flite saddle covered in Audi's own 'Fine Napa' leather. Then there's that paint job, which was devised by Audi's industrial design team in Munich and pays homage to Audi's various motorsport triumphs.
We aren't sure who actually buys these bikes, and if they ever actually sell at all, but – perhaps with that in mind – Audi has limited production to 100 examples.
