Audi toys with new shapes and sounds for electric TT

Audi is in an “intense concept phase” for the electric successor to the TT, experimenting with different silhouettes and soundtracks as it plots a replacement for the popular sports coupé, which retired last year.

Set to be introduced “within five or 10 years”, the new electric car will take a different name from the TT but occupy a similar position in the German firm’s range.

Audi’s spokesperson for technical development, Daniel Schuster, told Autocar: “We are taking a blank sheet of paper to see what is the right ‘icon’. “It’s not just about looking at what we have now and saying ‘it’d be cool to make it electric’. It’s really about what would be a great addition to the range.”

Schuster said it is important for Audi to continue to differentiate between regular and RS cars but added there has to be an “icon on top”. Rolf Michl, Audi Sport’s managing director, said developing the successor is a “huge job” for the company because it “didn’t want to lose existing customers”.

He added: “I wouldn’t just orientate myself on sizes, concepts, designs. You have to have a base portfolio that has to be sorted out very well. And then the car has to fit to this portfolio and to the Audi brand. This is quite a unique job.”

Schuster stopped short of describing what the new car could look like but promised that it “would not just be a replacement” for the TT. He said Audi’s approach will not be to “take the engine out, put an electric motor in and you have a TT with an electric engine”.

He added: “It will be different, but emotional.” While Audi will work to strengthen and highlight the “emotional” appeal of such a car, Michl confirmed it will not try to emulate the five-cylinder soundtrack of the top-drawer TT RS flagship.

Michl said: “We won’t use the five-cylinder sound for it because the TT was a unique concept that fitted perfectly in that time. Therefore, we have to find another thing for the future.

“Honestly, we had some prototypes where we reproduced the fivecylinder sound and it didn’t fit at all. So it has to be an orientation to the customer but it has really to be specific. Silent is the new loud.”

Head of technical development Steffen Bamberger said it is “too complicated” to recreate the nuances of a combustion engine for an EV. Instead, the firm has invested “a lot of money” in alternative interior and exterior sounds.

The new EV will also be differentiated from the TT by a “much wider” spread of driving behaviours, said Michl, but dynamic agility will remain key: “You will be surprised. For us, the RS DNA has to be reflected. It is not better or worse. It is just different.”