The electric super-car race just got a big jolt with Audi confirming the awesome e-Tron electric sports car is a go.

Johan de Nysschen, the president of Audi of America, says the German automaker will build an electric sports car based on the e-Tron concept that damn near stole the Frankfurt auto show last month. Better yet, he tells Automotive News we could see something by 2012.

"I expect we will see running examples in the next 24 months," he said.

It remains to be seen how closely the production model will hew to the concept, which falls between the Audi TT and R8 in size. It also isn't clear whether Audi will develop the concept's drivetrain – which sports four motors producing 230 kilowatts (313 horsepower) and a staggering 3,319 pound-feet of torque – or use something a little more conventional. By the way, you read that torque figure correctly. It's not a typo.

The e-Tron sports a 42.4-kilowatt-hour, liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery with a range of 154 miles. Recharge time is six to eight hours at 230 volts.

The e-Tron almost certainly is a shot across the bow of Mercedes-Benz and its electric Gullwing, but it also would compete with the Tesla Roadster. And to think it was only last month when Nysschen said electric vehicles are “for the intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are."

Automotive News says Audi also is developing hybrid vehicles, including a Q5 crossover utility that could be here by 2011.

Photo: Audi. Rupert Stadler, Audi’s chairman of the board (he’s the guy in the red tie), and Michael Dick, member of Audi’s technical development board, with the e-Tron at the Frankfurt auto show.