What it had to solve
Audi's look had drifted through a decade of ever-busier surfaces and ever-bigger dashboard screens. Newly hired design chief Massimo Frascella was asked to define a fresh direction, and the Concept C — an all-electric two-seat sports car introduced in 2025 — became its first full statement.
The idea
Reset the brand's design around 'radical simplicity': one electric roadster with a vertical face, a fold-away screen and physical buttons as the template.
How it works
The Concept C replaces Audi's familiar grille with a vertical frame that reimagines the brand's legacy, plus a four-element light signature. A retractable roof gives convertible openness while keeping a monolithic body. Inside, a rectangular touchscreen folds into the dashboard when unused and solid haptic buttons return. Frascella named the philosophy's four attributes: clear, technical, intelligent, emotional.
What it did
In August 2026 the Concept C won Gold in Automotive & Transportation at the IDEA awards. Audi confirmed it will spawn a production electric coupe, tentatively for 2027, and the language — not grafted onto existing models — will shape the next generation of the range.
Background
In 2025 Audi introduced the Concept C, an all-electric two-seat sports car built as the first full expression of a new design philosophy whose stated core is radical simplicity. The front replaces the familiar grille with a vertical frame reinterpreting the brand's legacy, flanked by a distinctive four-element light signature. The roof concept offers convertible openness while retaining a monolithic body style.
Inside, the cabin is deliberately free of distractions: a digital instrument cluster and a rectangular touchscreen that folds into the dashboard when not needed, plus physical buttons. Design chief Massimo Frascella summed up the new language as clear, technical, intelligent and emotional, arguing an electric car does not need to look electric — technology should appear only when needed.
On August 27, 2026, IDSA gave the Concept C a Gold IDEA in Automotive & Transportation. Audi has confirmed the concept heads to production as an electric coupe tentatively scheduled for 2027, and says the language will shape future models rather than being grafted onto the current range.
Why it lands
One flagship concept let Audi reset its whole visual identity at once, instead of diluting a new language across facelifts of old models.
The vertical frame and four-element lights gave the brand a recognizable face without copying the original TT it quietly references.
Folding the screen away and restoring haptic buttons turned anti-screen restraint into a premium, human-centered statement.
Frascella's four-word brief — clear, technical, intelligent, emotional — made the philosophy simple enough to apply across the range.
What you can take
A concept car can be a manifesto, not a tease: one uncompromised object gives a brand a language to copy. Hiding the screen until needed made restraint itself the luxury signal.
Since then
Audi has confirmed the Concept C will become a production electric sports coupe, tentatively arriving in 2027, with further models in the new language to follow. Frascella has ruled out grafting the new face onto existing cars, saying the philosophy is too zoomed-out to mix and match. The Concept C went on to sweep multiple global design awards, with the IDEA Gold the headline industrial-design honor.
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