Audi has revealed a striking two-seat sports car inspired by the TT, which previews a radical new design language for all of its upcoming cars - and will itself evolve into a production car.
The Concept C was revealed at a dedicated event in Milan – a week before making its public debut at Audi’s local motor show in Munich – as the first step in a complete strategic rethink for the company, via which it aims to return to growth following a challenging period of declining sales and weakened profit margins.
Its unveiling comes around two years after Audi ended production of the TT, the era-defining, VW Golf-based sports coupé that enjoyed strong commercial success over three generations. The retirement of the V10-engined R8 supercar a few months later left the German firm without a dedicated sports car offering for the first time in a quarter of a century.
But this new show car is confirmation that the firm will make a grand return to the segment with a compact, electric two-seater that blends futuristic cues and technology with elements of historic Audi models and a focus on driver engagement.
“The Audi Concept C marks the beginning of a new design philosophy and thus a defining moment for the four rings,” said the company. “It previews a future production model and will shape further models beyond that.”
The Concept C – a name which references both Audi's renewed focus on 'clarity', and the 1936 Auto Union Type C Grand Prix racer from which it takes inspiration – is a statement of intent from new head of design Massimo Frascella, who aims to make the brand "truly distinctive again" with his radical new styling direction.
Frascella joined Audi last year after a 13-year stint at JLR, where he led the design of the current Discovery, Defender and Range Rover. On his arrival in Ingolstadt, he spoke of his appreciation of "simplicity" and said he was “passionate about creating designs that are free from superfluous ornaments and do not merely follow trends”.
The Concept C stays true to that ambition, with a minimalist, monolithic design treatment that majors on simplicity - a theme which will come to define not just the company's cars, but its strategic approach as it embarks on a "fundamental realignment" underpinned by a focus "on what is essential".
Audi CEO Gernot Döllner said: "The way we design our vehicles is the way we will shape our company. Clarity is an ethos and the compass that will guide Audi through the times ahead."
Audi is currently fighting back after a "very challenging" 2024 in which it faced severe headwinds in the form of supply chain challenges, global political tensions and increased Chinese competition.
Ultimately, the firm posted a 12% drop in deliveries, a significant 7.6% dip in overall revenues and a dramatic drop in profits of more than three percentage points.
With the company warning that 2025 "will not be any easier", Döllner recently spoke of the need to "make Audi future-proof again" by cutting costs across the whole organisation and remodelling its future strategy "with the courage to break new ground and with confidence in our traditional strengths".
Audi says the Concept C embodies this strategic rethink with a "reduced and timeless aesthetic that will continue to differentiate the company in times of increased competition".
"It is a tangible interpretation of the new design philosophy, a symbol of the determination that will transform our company and the entire brand," said Frascella.
Already, in its quest for simplicity and clarity, Audi has reversed the oft-critiqued decision to give electric cars even model numbers and ICE cars odd - a strategy which customers and dealers said was inviting confusion and making the model range hierarchy unclear.
Like the original TT, the Concept C's glasshouse extends to the rear of the body and appears to sit "on" the body, with the two halves of the car split horizontally by an accentuated shoulder line.
The two-seater features a retractable hardtop – a first for an Audi cabriolet – and 'mid-engined' proportions which Audi says are the result of a centrally mounted battery pack - a layout it will share with Porsche's upcoming 718 Boxster and Cayman, which use the same specially adapted version of the Porsche-Audi developed PPE platform.
Placing the batteries in the centre of the chassis – rather than under the floor – allows an electric sports car to have its seats closer to the ground, optimises weight distribution and keeps the centre of gravity as low as possible - all attributes that help to make them feel like 'traditional' ICE sports cars.
The show car, which is described as driveable, uses a single motor at the rear, but the production version will be available with a range-topping twin-motor arrangement - but no power figures have been given.
One of the most notable elements that will be carried over to production cars is a new upright grille design which harks back not just to the earliest Audi models (including the Type C racer) but also cars like the C6-generation Audi A6 from 2004. Described as "a progressive interpretation of Audi's legacy", this new-look centrepiece is used to more prominently showcase the brand's four-ring logo and to house the "forward-looking technology" that will feature on next-generation models - including driver-assist cameras and sensors.
The Concept C's distinctive new light signatures, with Audi's four-ring motif echoed in the LED patterns, will also make it to showrooms - a decision which Audi says will make its cars more recognisable on the road at night.
The concept's resemblance to Audi's seminal sports coupé, the TT, is no coincidence - the launch of the original Bauhaus-style car having been a formative moment for Frascella.
"In 1998, when the first Audi TT arrived at a dealership in Turin, I took a day off work to just look at the car in peace. I was there for hours, looking at the car from every angle, touching every surface.
"The staff probably thought I was crazy. But for me, the TT was more than just a car. It was a message: you don't need to shout to be heard. You don't need excess to make a statement. You just need clarity. And, more importantly, the courage to follow it."
Clarity and simplicity, then, are themes that will define Audi's future production cars - making good on Frascella's initial pledge to usher in a "timeless and sophisticated design language".
This thinking will also apply to the interiors of the new cars, as showcased by the Concept C's minimalist, driver-focused cockpit.
Audi has fabricated the physical controls from anodised aluminium to give "a tactile experience that reflects mechanical quality", and has engineered them to ensure they make "the unmistakable 'Audi click'" when operated. A foldable 10.4in screen in the centre console ensures that technology "is always close by, yet never dominant" - providing "information in an intuitive way and in context - tailored to every situation".
Overall, Audi says, the balance between traditional physical controls and 'shy' digital technology means "the controls are exactly where they are expected to be".
Meanwhile, the multi-function steering wheel is round rather than squared-off as it is in Audi's current models, and the Audi badge in the middle is made from real metal, emphasising the company's renewed focus on authenticity and physical appeal.
Audi has not indicated whether it will resurrect the TT name – perhaps with an E-tron suffix – for the new EV sports car, but the firm’s quest for simplicity and clarity suggests it is likely to leverage its more familiar assets where possible in the years to come.
What next?
The first beneficiary of Frascella's new-school approach is expected to be the next-generation Q7, which is understood to have been designed prior to his arrival for a launch in early 2026, but was pulled back into the studio for a late redesign according to the new principles.
It remains unclear how closely the eventual TT production car will hold true to the Concept C, but Döllner previously said that Audi would not "show studies anymore", suggesting the car shown in Munich will be subtly evolved through the homologation process, rather than completely overhauled.
Separately, Audi is understood to be working on a third-generation R8 supercar, which will use a 900bhp-plus plug-in hybrid V8 shared with the Lamborghini Temerario - much as the previous R8s were related to the Gallardo and Hurácan.
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