- Audi’s CEO has confirmed its recently revealed Concept C all-electric supercar is going into production.
- Something of a successor to the legendary TT and R8 models, it was unveiled last September and will share the same platform as the next Porsche 718.
- While a specific timeline is yet to be confirmed, Audi’s CEO confirmed it will arrive on the market “within two years.”
Audi’s having a proper “new era” moment, and it’s coming in two parts: a production-bound electric sports car that looks like the spiritual lovechild of the TT and R8, and a company-wide speed makeover designed to make Europe’s decision-making pace match that of China.
The Audi Concept C is an all-electric two-seat sports car with an electrically retractable hardtop, wrapped in what Audi’s new design boss Massimo Frascella calls “radical simplicity,” boasting taut surfaces, monolithic proportions, and a very deliberate throwback to Audi’s racing heritage and TT-era clarity.
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Audi’s own comms are pretty blunt about the intent, stating that the Concept C isn’t just a styling exercise. It previews a future production model that aims to blend open-top exhilaration with hardtop elegance.
In an interview with Go Auto, CEO Gernot Döllner has said the brand won’t bother with “design studies” anymore, and that if they show a concept, there’s a product decision behind it. In other words, this thing is coming.
“Whenever we present a new concept, it will always be a serious product,” Gernot Döllner said. “The first proof point to our strategy is the Concept C. We presented that last September, and within two years, we will have it in the market.”
Now, the “how do we actually build it fast enough?” bit. According to Döllner, Audi is adopting what he calls “China speed,” by ditching layered committees and replacing them with tight, empowered “project houses” that pull design, engineering, procurement, manufacturing, suppliers, quality, and validation into one room, led by someone with direct board access. Translation: fewer meetings, faster decisions, quicker cars on roads.
“We call it ‘China speed’ in Ingolstadt,” he said. “We (have) completely adapted that to our processes in Germany. Not so far in the future, we will prove that we are able to react as fast as we do in China – but in European programs.”
It’s not just a smart play, but one that’s arguably existentially important for the continued success of European automakers, and if Audi can pair this new internal pace with the Concept C’s clean-sheet design energy, we might finally be looking at the brand’s next genuinely iconic sports car.
