Audi TT replacement in limbo

The Audi TT has perhaps the most recognisable silhouette of any Ingolstadt-built model released in the past 25 years, but the chances of a new version of the two-door coupe aren’t looking promising.

“I personally haven’t seen a new concept for it,” Audi Australia director Jeff Mannering said.

“There’s a new chief designer [Massimo Frascella] now at Audi, so there’s been a change in the guard of the design model.

“What happens with his footprint in the factory over the next 18 months? I don’t know.”

While a new Audi TT could add to Audi’s bottom line, Mannering said the prevailing economic conditions are not conducive to the development and release of a new-generation sports car.

“You could say, if you brought a new model in, it could be incremental sales and incremental profit,” he said.

“But I would say, with the economic situation worldwide on the moment, the macroeconomics with the escalation in Middle East and Ukraine, you need to be wary of investments in new products.

“I wouldn’t say the global economy is booming just at the moment. It’s tough everywhere.”

Audi’s local head of product planning, Peter Strudwieke added: “I think Audi is always looking at global segment trends.

“So that’s why, obviously, SUVs, for the past so many years, have been on the increase. At the moment, they’re still increasing.

“So Audi’s approach was to look at alternatives in the SUV space, which is why we got so many sportback variants.

“So we’re taking a little bit out of sports cars – for which sales had been declining for quite some time – and putting it into segments where it makes sense, like, sportier variants of our SUV range.”

This news should come as no surprise, given Audi has already said that the next-generation A5 will no longer be offered as a two-door model and its now-defunct A3 convertible and R8 supercar are also not scheduled for replacement.

The first Audi TT appeared in 1998 based on the Audi A3/Volkswagen Golf platform with an unusual ‘Baurhaus’ exterior design.

Production peaked at more than 25,000 units in 2000 but as production of the third-generation Audi TT wound up in 2023, less than 10,000 were built.

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