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Here in the US, the Audi A3 is the luxury brand's smallest offering. But, in Europe, they sell the even smaller A1 hatchback. But, Audi's boss has hinted at the A1 being discontinued for a certain reason.
During the reveal of the competitive new Audi E-Tron GT, he said that the A2 could be brought back as an electric subcompact vehicle. He also said that they are watching the success of other automakers under Volkswagen Group with their city cars, making them "question the A1". If the discontinuation of the A1 is true, then the Q2 compact crossover (which is also Europe-exclusive) will take over as Audi's smallest car. That won't last long, though. As we said before, the A2 could be making a comeback.
The A2 is apparently being developed under Audi's ambitious Project Artemis, and it will be the production version of Audi's AI:ME all-electric concept car. The AI:ME had only one electric motor producing 170 horsepower, and that also could be the case with the new A2. We don't know if the city car will be sold in the US market yet, but there is a chance.
The A1 hatchback won't be the only car being discontinued. Audi's boss admitted that he doesn't want Audi's onslaught of EVs internally competing with their combustion-powered cars. "We have to cut back. As we look at the Q4 E-Tron, we have a model where we have similar combustion-engine-powered models, and certainly we don't want to have the same portfolio electrically. We make purpose-built electric cars because we can offer more functionality [with the EVs], so we will certainly cut back our combustion portfolio in the next 10 years. We have to and we will." Does that spell the end of cars like the A5 Sportback, Q5, A3, and many others?
Source Credits: CarBuzz
Image Credits: Audi
(Note: the new supermini may or may not be called 'A2', we are just assuming because there are several hints to it)
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