Audi Accelerates Development of New Sport Car, Concept C Ready to Replace TT

Audi introduced the Concept C as a picture of the future design direction as well as a signal of the return of a two-door sports car to its product line. This concept model is even prepared to immediately enter the mass production stage as the successor to the Audi TT which has been discontinued.

Launching from Carscoops, Thursday, March 5, the launch target is only in about two years. The speed of its development is said to be inspired by a strategy that they call China's speed.

After the discontinuation of the TT and the mid-engined supercar R8, Audi currently no longer has a two-door sports car in its portfolio. Therefore, the presence of the Concept C is very important to fill the void.

The development process of this car is also relatively short. From the initial sketch stage to production, it only takes about three years, much faster than the development cycle of Audi models in general.

"Every time we introduce a new concept, it will always be a serious product," Audi chief executive Gernot Döllner told GoAuto at the launch of the new RS5 recently.

"The first proof of our strategy is the Concept C. We introduced it last September, and in two years, we will market it," he added.

The production version of the Concept C will use the Volkswagen Group's Premium Electric Platform (PPE) electric platform. This architecture is also being developed for the latest generation of the Porsche 718 Cayman and 718 Boxster which will switch to electric vehicles.

Although there were reports that the future of the electric Porsche 718 was uncertain, Döllner confirmed that cooperation between Audi and Porsche was still going on. According to CarSales reports, in an internal letter to Audi employees he confirmed that the delivery of the platform by Porsche was beyond doubt.

As well as adding that the development of the Concept C took place with good collaboration between the Porsche Team and the Audi Team. The technical details of the drive system have not been fully revealed, but the Concept C is confirmed to be a pure electric car.

Audi is said to place battery cells in the cabin area and the rear axle, so that the weight distribution can mimic the handling characteristics of traditional mid-engined sports cars. The rapid development of this car is also driven by the company's new philosophy called China speed.

In this approach, Audi abandons the layered committee system and replaces it with a project house structure, where design, engineering, manufacturing, procurement, supplier relations, quality, and validation teams are in one organization with one leader and direct access to the board of directors.

"We have fully adapted that into our process in Germany," said Döllner. "Soon we will prove that we are able to react as quickly as we did in China, but in European programs."

He added that this approach allows the decision-making process to take place much faster. He holds spontaneous project meetings every week.

"The key to a quick project lies in the initial phase, the alignment between the design, engineering, and testing teams to build a stable project that can be validated in a very short period of time," concluded Dollner.