Automobile corporations love a mission assertion. With the arrival of the Idea C, Audi’s new one is crystal clear: “radical simplicity.” An all-electric two-seater with a retractable folding laborious prime, the Idea C is a “progressive interpretation” of the corporate’s legacy, says Audi—and it isn’t laborious to see that the TT has factored fairly closely in that.
However as you decide your method by way of the messaging—key phrases listed here are precision and readability, in addition to a reemphasis on our outdated good friend “Vorsprung durch Technik”—this seems like a considerable reset after a interval of aesthetic drift. This isn’t only a piece of conceptual eye sweet, then: It’s Audi participating fight mode in an business presently beset with challenges.
“Our imaginative and prescient is a name to motion for the entire firm—and is important for making our model actually distinctive as soon as once more,” Audi chief artistic officer Massimo Frascella explains. “It’s the philosophy behind each resolution we make, and we goal to use its rules throughout the whole group. We name it ‘the Radical Subsequent.’”
Let’s begin with the automotive itself. Though the e-tron GT set the bar excessive, Audi’s mannequin vary has been gentle on coherence and drama. The Idea C isn’t fairly a first-principles machine, but it surely undoubtedly strips issues again and seeks to stoke some good old school flames of want. It’s a terrific trying factor within the flesh: stocky, strong, and charismatic. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner, in cost for precisely two years, personally pushed for a brand new sports activities automotive; Frascella used it to push the boundaries by way of design creativity and manufacturing approach.
Courtesy of Audi
It’s additionally one for marque historians: Though there’s nothing explicitly retro right here, the Nineteen Thirties Auto Union Sort C Grand Prix automotive, the early-noughties Rosemeyer idea, and extra pertinently the unique TT are all within the combine, as is Bauhaus and German modernism.
Frascella, it needs to be famous, is an Italian who rose to prominence as head of design at Jaguar Land Rover, and he’s credited with the present Range Rover, a universally admired car (although he additionally labored on the fairly extra polarizing Jaguar Type 00.) A scarcity of decoration and dedication to what automotive designers are wont to name “monolithic” surfaces are evidently two of his logos.
That a lot is actually obvious right here. The Idea C’s taut, machined look suggests one thing carved from a large billet of aluminum, and there’s a powerful new vertical front-grille form with a slim however highly effective gentle signature that echoes the four-ring emblem. We reckon it’s finest appreciated from an elevated place above the rear three-quarters, although. There’s no rear window, minimal ornament, and slender LED taillights, with three slats within the rear deck to counsel a extra emotionally charged, mid-engined configuration. We’re instructed the windowless, slatted look will make manufacturing, and the brand new automotive is slated to reach in 2027.
Courtesy of Audi
