Audi to Zap Current TT for Something TT-Totally Different

The Audi TT, a sports-car icon that’s dotted U.S. streets since the turn of the millennium, will soon bite the proverbial brake dust — at least in current form. Bram Schot, chairman of Audi’s board of management, indicated to shareholders in a May 23 meeting that Audi plans to replace the TT with a successor that’s similarly priced but very different.

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“In a few years’ time, we will replace the TT with a new, emotive model in the same price range,” Schot said through an interpreter. “How many years, that’s of course the question. Because it’s a different TT, a very different one, with an electric TT perhaps.”

The TT isn’t Audi’s only sports car whose future could radically change.

“Focusing also means leaving things out,” Schot continued. “For example, the R8 sports car: Do we need a successor with a combustion engine? Is it really in line with our vision? The decision hasn’t been taken yet, but it’s a discussion we’ll have to have.”

That vision banks heavily on SUVs and electrified drivetrains, the latter planned to account for some 40 percent of global sales by 2025. Audi promises more than 30 cars with some sort of electrified drivetrain — a description that could include hybrids or plug-in hybrids — by 2025. Twenty of those will be fully electric.

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By then, Audi also plans for half of its models to be SUVs and to expand the Sportback concept across its “entire portfolio,” including A and Q models, Schot said. Audi also plans to launch five electric cars in 2020. The next-generation Audi A8 “might well be all-electric,” Schot said, though he added that Audi has yet to make a final decision on that.

Speaking of the A8, Audi also plans a “new, especially luxurious and prestigious derivative” of the flagship sedan sometime down the road. It will also begin selling cars online in June, beginning with a special edition of the TT. It’s unclear which markets will offer online sales, however.

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