Audi’s Coupé nameplate began in 1980 as a two-door, sporty derivative of the Audi 80. The first generation, now commonly identified as the B2 Coupé, was presented in March 1980, went into production that summer, and reached customers later that year. It gave Audi a more elegant, enthusiast-focused body style built on mainstream mechanicals, and it also served as the basis for the original Audi quattro, which turned the Coupé shape into one of the most recognizable silhouettes of the era.
A second-generation Audi Coupé arrived in September 1988, this time based on the B3 family of the Audi 80 and 90. That model continued the same basic concept but with a more modern, rounded body and a broader range of engines over time. It also became the home of some of Audi’s most memorable sporty versions, including the S2, which carried the Coupé line’s performance reputation into the 1990s.
Audi ended production of the Coupé in December 1995, closing out a run of about seven years for the B3 generation and nearly 70,000 cars built. Because the nameplate was used across more than one generation without a break, the Coupé is best understood as a single historical model line with a clear early-1980s origin, a major redesign in the late 1980s, and a final discontinuation in the mid-1990s. It remains significant among Audi enthusiasts as one of the brand’s foundational sporty road cars, and as the body style that helped launch the quattro legend.