According to the media report
Audi plans to return a legend
Updated on March 21, 2025 – 8:06 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The TT is history-but not the end of the sports car tradition: Audi plans an electrical successor to the famous model. Everything about the possible comeback at a glance.
Flat, round, straightforward: The Audi TT was a design statement that became an icon. He stayed in the program for a quarter of a century, then that: since November 2023, no TT has been rolling off the assembly line. But the last word has not yet been spoken.
Audi boss Gernot Döllner does not want to write off the sports car segment. That belongs to the brand of the brand, he says. But just build on the past? “As a car manufacturer, you can’t copy your past.” A possible TT successor should be different. Bigger? Electrical? The future is open – but Audi is thinking about it.
What is certain is that a new TT will no longer have an internal combustion engine. A plug-in hybrid? Perhaps. A pure electric car? Probably. But only when the technology is mature. Faster loading times, larger ranges – these are the prerequisites for a real sports car. Döllner says: “Nothing speaks against an electric car for crossing the Alps and driving fun on the country road.”
But reality slow down the vision. At least for now. Audi is in crisis: burglary, job cuts, an increasingly harder market. Before a new sports car comes, the core business must be back on firm feet. A new TT is therefore probably not coming before 2027.
The TT was developed by Audi’s concept director Ulrich Hackenberg and designer Freeman Thomas and was soon a classic. Thomas raved about the “Teutonic purity of the form” and drew a clear conclusion: “This car speaks German.” And the world understood it – with enthusiasm.
In 1995 at the IAA in Frankfurt he was the star: Audi’s TT study electrified the audience. The enthusiasm was so huge that the rather sober brand decided to bring the car into a row. Three years later, the TT rolled off the assembly line.
As beautiful as the rounded rear was – it had a dangerous downside. Without a clear demolition edge, it produced too much buoyancy on the rear axle at high speed. The athletically coordinated chassis did the rest: the TT became unpredictable in fast curves. The rear could break out abruptly – a nightmare for inexperienced drivers.
The result: a series of heavier, sometimes fatal accidents. The media plunged on the problem that grew pressure on Audi. The solution? A small spoiler lip update and a revised chassis. But the ESP, which was later installed as standard, should not exist for existing vehicles – supposedly too complex. The customers protested, Audi steered. ESP was retrofitted, but only against a deductible of 650 D-Mark.
