Audi has confirmed that the production version of the Concept C continues to be on track for debut next year, Autocar has reported.
Confirmation of the productionised Concept C emerged as an internal letter from Audi CEO Gernot Döllner to Audi employees was sighted by German news outlet Donaukurier, in which Döllner addressed concerns regarding the future of the brand’s electric sports car that is being developed in partnership with Porsche.
“The delivery of the platform by Porsche is not in question,” Döllner wrote, stating that cooperation between the brands is “proceeding in good collaboration between Team Porsche and Team Audi”. This follows reports that the successors to the Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman range are being re-engineered for petrol powertrains, turning away from its prior EV-only direction.
Questions were posed regarding the future of the next-generation Porsche 718 battery-electric sports car duo with Michael Leiters taking over the role of Porsche CEO from Oliver Blume effective January 1 this year, and Bloomberg reported that Porsche, under the leadership of Leiter was reviewing a possible cancellation of the brand’s upcoming EV two-door sports car models.
This, in turn, called into question the future of the production Audi Concept C, which is referred to internally at the carmaker as the C-Sport, according to Autocar. The aforementioned internal letter by Döllner is aimed at reassuring Audi employees that plans for the brand’s EV sports car remains intact.
The production car that will result from the Concept C will be EV-only, and there are no plans for an internal combustion-engined version alongside it, Döllner said at the concept’s unveiling.
Last December, Porsche was reportedly preparing to adapt its next-generation Boxster and Cayman EV successors to incorporate mid-mounted internal combustion engines, and the latter require significant re-engineering as the PPE platform of the electric models use their battery packs as a stressed, load-bearing part of the structure.
GALLERY: Audi Concept C
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