Rocket Audi Pour the TT's Design Language Into a Dual-Boiler Espresso Machine
Built on Rocket’s Bicocca platform, the machine runs a textless touchscreen and arrives with a purpose-built Spluga grinder.
Summary
Rocket Espresso and Audi have co-developed a prosumer espresso machine built on the Rocket Bicocca portafilter platform
The design was worked up with the Audi Design Team and studio Valerio Cometti + V12Design, taking the Audi TT as its reference point
Inside sit dual stainless-steel boilers, a rotary pump and PID control on an electrically heated brewing group
Rocket Espresso and Audi have built an espresso machine together, and the engineering underneath it is as considered as the bodywork. The machine takes Rocket’s Bicocca portafilter platform as its base and runs it through Audi’s design language, with the finished unit pairing with a Spluga grinder developed specifically to sit alongside it. Development was shared between the Audi Design Team and Italian studio Valerio Cometti + V12Design, working from the Audi TT as the visual touchstone.
Two stainless-steel boilers handle brewing and steam separately, sized at 0.5 liters and 1.5 liters respectively, and a rotary pump supplies pressure rather than the vibration pumps that sit in cheaper machines. PID temperature control is applied to an electrically heated brewing group, which is the specification that matters most for shot-to-shot consistency. The unit draws 1,600W across both 220 to 240V and 115V configurations, holds 1.8 liters in the tank and weighs 35 kg across a 409 by 465 by 400 mm footprint.
Control is where the car influence becomes functional rather than cosmetic. A 3.5-inch touchscreen is recessed into the upper section of the brewing unit, running a textless HMI interface that leans on symbols instead of written menus, while black glossy handles and rotary controls provide the tactile counterpoint. It is a division of labor familiar from a car interior, with the physical controls kept for the actions you perform by feel.
Matte aluminum is set against deep black surfaces, and the side panels rise progressively toward the rear in a sculpted geometry that gives the machine a directional stance rather than a boxy one. Circular aluminum feet lift the body so it appears to float on the counter, and the brewing unit is integrated flush into the housing rather than bolted on as a separate component. The TT reference makes sense as a starting point given that car’s own reputation for reductive, geometry-first design.
Check out the machine on the Rocket website.
