Last month, Audi locked in the Concept C for production in 2027, effectively filling the space in its lineup left vacant by the TT sports car three years ago.
Unveiled in September last year, the Concept C’s design had all the makings of a potential TT revival, utilising the electric platform set to be shared with Porsche’s upcoming electric 718 (Cayman and Boxster) twins.
Despite EVs enjoying a boost in sales – thanks to changing emissions regulations in some regions, as well as rising oil prices – demand for battery-powered sports cars has remained lukewarm, raising questions about whether Audi will stick with the Concept C’s EV-only plans.
“We will see European and Chinese market dominated by battery electric vehicles and with the changes of the past two years, we see the US, for the next 10 years, at least, being dominated by combustion engine and hybrids,” Audi CEO Gernot Döllner said, as reported by CarBuzz.
“Asking for that specific model, it will definitely be battery-electric only. We are not thinking about flexibility [for that model] because the global volume we are planning for [it] is quite small.
“I mean, the US is not one market. It has different regions as well […] and that concept, I can see [being] a very good fit to the West Coast and parts of the East Coast that are maybe, right now, a little bit more open to battery electric. So we are planning to have that car be battery electric [only].”
Döllner says that petrol-powered sports cars are still on the menu for Audi in its future lineup, though even the porky RS5 liftback and wagon is counted as “one of those sports cars with four doors with a combustion engine”.
As previously reported, the plan to produce the Concept C appeared to hit something of a stumbling block earlier this year, with Bloomberg citing insider sources who said new Porsche CEO Michael Leiters was considering scrapping the 718 Cayman and Boxster EVs, due to continued delays and rising costs.
This was followed by a Donaukurier report, claiming an internal memo had been sent from Döllner to the Audi’s employees, saying the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) which is still set to underpin the 718 EVs will remain available to Audi.
While the Concept C production car is meant to be based on the PPE architecture, previous iterations of the TT were twinned with the Volkswagen Golf and its derivatives.
That ended in November 2023 when the final and 662,762th example of the TT rolled off the production line, having experienced a decline in sales towards the end of its run.
As the Porsche 718 EVs are also reportedly being prepared to become plug-in hybrids, it’s possible this technology could later find its way into the Concept C, though Audi has been firm on its EV future in recent times.
“I know of no better technology than the electric car for making progress in reducing CO2 emissions in transport in the coming years,” Döllner told German business publication WirtschaftsWoche in September.
“But even apart from climate protection, the electric car is simply the better technology.”
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