Audi has a new toy, and it’s not mucking about. It’s called the Concept C; a two-seat, all-electric roadster that looks like it’s been designed by a Bauhaus architect with a grudge against curves. Think TT successor meets monolithic stealth fighter, and you’re halfway there.
Unveiled in Milan, this is Audi’s big statement: the brand has had its fill of identikit grilles and screen-heavy cockpits. Instead, the Concept C goes for radical simplicity – one huge slab of aluminium and ambition with a single, surgical crease down the flanks. The famous single-frame grille? Binned. In its place, a gaping vertical letterbox that nods to Audi’s Auto Union racers of the 1930s. Heritage, darling, but make it minimalist.
The numbers are tasty enough: about 4.5 metres long, nearly 2 metres wide, and low enough to scalp a kerbside pigeon. It’s built around an 800-volt electric platform, shares DNA with Porsche’s incoming 718 EVs, and drives the rear wheels by default, though Audi hints quattro-ification is possible if you’re the sort who panics in drizzle.
Then there’s the roof: a two-piece, electrically retractable hardtop that does a neat disappearing act, turning your silent coupe into a silent cabriolet in seconds. The lights, meanwhile, are made of wizardry – four-segment LEDs front and rear that look like the future of night-time smugness.
Inside? Less spaceship, more art gallery. Physical aluminium switches (remember those?), wool cloth, recycled bits – and a screen that only pops up when you actually need it. Audi calls it “shy tech.” We call it “finally calming the heck down.”
This isn’t just a pretty sculpture. Audi swears it’s a manifesto. Production’s set for 2027 at its Böllinger Höfe plant, the same home as the R8, if that gives you a clue about intentions. Expect a proper road-going version with slightly less concept-car swagger and slightly more cupholders.
Will it make you miss the old TT? Probably not. This isn’t retro, it’s Audi’s reset button. Cleaner, sharper, angrier. And if the driving experience matches the design brief, this could be the first electric Audi that’s genuinely desirable rather than just available.