Audi CEO Gernot Dollner has revealed his plans for an Audi fightback, admitting that the German brand has “lost its focus and clarity”.
Nowhere more is that highlighted than on particular important element of every Audi: the steering wheel.
Speaking to The Independent, Dollner revealed that buying an Audi would be far less complex than before with fewer options. And nowhere is that highlighted more than on one important element of every Audi: the steering wheel.
“We will have a much more focused offer structure,” said Dollner, “We will have clarity for the customer. We won’t have more than 100 steering wheel variants anymore – I believe four steering wheels are enough.”
The same applies to other options currently available across the range. “We won’t have seven or eight different colours in the interior and materials and so on. We will have fewer, but they will be curated to give the car a specific flavour and feeling.”
Dollner is clear on what has gone wrong at Audi with clarity being the watchword on how to fix it. “I think we tried to do too many things at the same time, and then we did them like everybody else was doing them,” he said, “So, we lost a little bit of our character and having been the challenger in the market and the premium segment to do it like the others is not a good place to be in.
“I want to bring back the idea to Audi. Clarity, clear focus, being daring and bold and try to do things differently and set standards or inspire the world when it comes to vehicle design.”
The Concept C, launched in Milan and shown at the recent Munich Motor Show, is the figurehead for Audi’s future, with Dollner confirming that the car would go on sale looking more than 90 per cent like the concept – and soon, with the company working at so-called “China speed”.
“We are quite happy with the reactions and the feedback we got so far,” said Dollner. “Under my time at Audi I will only present concept cars or show cars that have already a decision to be produced. We have a clear production decision for that car and we are working on realising it as close to the concept we've shown as possible.
“We came up with that fully functional concept in less than one year, way less than one year. And in another round two years from now, we will see it.”
Although a decision to build the Concept C has been made, a name hasn’t been decided on. However, Dollner confirmed that it wouldn’t be called TT.
“It sits almost precisely in the middle between TT and R8, and it’s not a successor of the TT, so it will not have the TT name. We were so fast in developing the concept, we didn't have the time to find the right name. So, we called it Concept C.”
Dollner also provided a hint at the excitement Audi customers will feel when driving the production version of the Concept C.
“I’ve driven it, yes – it’s fun,” he said. “It’s quite impressive how great the electric drivetrain works on that vehicle with a weight sent from behind the driver.”
Dollner is also convinced that Audi enthusiasts are ready for the switch to electric, especially with some of the tech likely to be on the Concept C production car, including a virtual gearbox.
“Believe me, I was an absolute petrolhead, driving every kind of combustion engine and loving it,” he admitted. “And then we moved on to the battery electric era and I found other things very, very exciting, I even find driving without sound very emotional, but I had to learn one thing. I thought we will only combine the sound of silence with battery electric. And we found with virtual gear boxes they also sound really fun – they add fun to driving a battery electric car. And even on the racetrack with my limited abilities, at least I’m faster with the car with the virtual gearbox than with only a linear battery electric gearbox.”
Audi’s famed sporting RS brand will also live on in the electric era, according to Dollner. “RS is an integral and extremely important part of the Audi brand,” he said. “We will only badge cars with the RS label that truly deserve it. And we have also proven with one, the GT RS, that electrification and RS works.
“Maybe we’ll have to add a virtual gearbox in the future. But other than that, performance and handling are outstanding. It’s one of the best driving Audi cars so far.
“We see quite an emotional and wide range of RS models in the future, maybe for the near future, for the next five to seven years, more combustion and hybrid-based and also step-by-step also more battery electric RS models.”
In five years’ time, Dollner promised that we’ll be seeing a whole new Audi with a clear goal: “To be the most desirable brand in the premium segment, have a line-up of cars with the radical next design with that strong design language. And to really show, again, together with design, with quality, with excellent materials, and to have built a company that has a great future. Even beyond my time as CEO, that's my goal.”
