At Audi’s annual general meeting today, the brand announced that it would discontinue the TT and replace it with an electric car in the next few years.
“For two decades, we have had this young, emotive car in our product range: as a coupe and as a roadster,” said Bram Schot, chairman of Audi’s board of management in his speech. “In a few years, we will replace the TT with a new emotive model in the same price range: with an electric car.”
The news follows months of rumors and hints that Audi management couldn’t justify the small, slow-selling coupe. But with this announcement, along with the confirmation of a replacement in that plays in the same sandbox, the move is now confirmed.
Less clear is the fate of the TT’s big brother: the R8.
“Focusing also means leaving out,” said Schot in his speech. “For example, the R8 sports car. Do we need a successor with a combustion engine? Does this fit in with our vision? The discussion will give us an answer to that.”
While the tone and language suggest that Audi is looking to replace the R8 with an electric car, Schot, unfortunately, couched his words in the cloak of vagueness.
Unfortunately for fans of the R8, the word “focusing” was in reference to earlier comments Schot made, setting up his discussion of the two performance cars and raising the specter of no replacement at all.
“Reality shows that we as a company have been involved in too many projects,” said Schot. “There will be many things in the future that we no longer do. Or things that we do less.”
Whether or not the R8 gets a direct replacement, Audi’s electric concepts have shown that it is at least still interested in performance cars. They just might not be powered by V10s—which is sad.
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