Audi kills TT, promises seven new SUV variants as it transforms for the future
A spiritual successor to the coupe is planned, but it'll be an all-electric affair.
Audi's in the middle of massively reorganizing its efforts as the entire VW Group moves wholesale into an electrified state of mind. To that end, it will make some big shifts, including eliminating a slow-selling coupe while packing on the SUV trims.
Audi will soon remove the TT from its lineup, according to comments made by Audi executives at the automaker's annual shareholders meeting in Germany. It won't die completely, though. Rather, it'll be replaced with an all-electric car in the same price range. It may not have the TT badge, but Audi isn't prepared to leave this segment entirely.
While it does have its ardent fans, there's a good case to be made for shedding the diminutive hatchback. Sales figures from GoodCarBadCar show that Audi only sells a thousand or two TTs per year in the US, and while 2016 represented a high-water mark for its sales, it sold half as many in 2018 as it did two years prior.
In the meantime, the automaker will continue to focus on its strengths, including SUVs , which markets are buying up like they're going out of style (spoiler alert: they aren't). Audi's suits also promised during the shareholder meeting that the automaker would introduce seven new SUVs "without predecessors" in 2019.
Of that seven, Audi specifically called out four. It said two will be "particularly sporty" variants of the Q8, likely alluding to SQ8 and RS Q8 variants of the automaker's top-tier SUV. Two others, the E-Tron Sportback and Q3 Sportback, will see Audi's swoopy-coupe badge applied to its crossovers for the first time. As for the remaining three models, Motor1 believes they might be the SQ3, RS Q3 and RS Q7, but Audi hasn't confirmed anything. Considering we're halfway through 2019, odds are we'll find out soon enough.