The New Audi TT Might Be Axed

Audi unveiled the Concept C in September and had some journalists driving it just a couple of months later. At the time it was described as about as complete as prototypes get and possibly a breakthrough moment for all-electric sports cars. But these are dark times for EVs, and Porsche recently said it was reconsidering plans for all-electric 718s, which has now turned out to be potentially bad news for the Concept C, too, because the cars share a platform.

Porsche and Audi have the same corporate parent in the Volkswagen Group, and Audi had planned to use the platform Porsche was developing for the all-electric 718 for the Audi Concept C. The problem has been in the development of that platform, particularly the batteries, which have led to costs skyrocketing and Porsche getting cold feet. If Porsche does abandon the project, that would leave the Concept C in limbo, with Audi having the option to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to finish the project on its own or shelve it, according to Handelsblatt‘s sources.

Audi had been readying the new TT for a 2027 launch, just a year before the Volkswagen Group is said to have a different all-electric platform ready for a wide variety of cars, one that the Concept C could possibly share as well.

The Concept C had also been planned to be Audi’s new halo car, the car on which the brand stakes its reputation and from which the brand derives much of its design language and inner pride. The Concept C would be filling a halo-car-sized hole in Audi’s soul since the discontinuation of the R8, and one that the E-Tron GT has tried but failed to fill.

The Concept C would also be the new Audi TT in spirit if not in fact, since Audi has instead described the Concept C as a car very much like a new TT but not a new TT exactly. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the TT to Audi’s sense of self; it’s not on the level of Quattro but not far off. The TT made modern Audi and set the stage for decades of growth for the brand, from a time in the 1990s when it was a fairly niche German manufacturer in the U.S. to a time now when it is a peer of Mercedes and BMW. The Concept C was going to continue that legacy, but maybe not anymore.

Click here for more photos of the Audi Concept C.

See Also

This Bonkers Batmobile Is Based on Mercedes-Benz and Now up for Grabs