The Audi A2 hatchback is set to make a return by the end of the year, according to sources reported by the British Autocar. The original A2, produced for the first few years of this millennium, was a small, light, and frugal boutique supermini crafted from aluminum. Over two decades after the last original A2 was built, Audi will likely bring it back as an entry-level EV.
Autocar is reporting that the reborn city car, likely to be called the A2 E-tron, would replace the A1 hatchback and Q2 crossover models that are set to end production around the same time as the new car is to be unveiled. If its starting price remains at the estimated £30k GBP or 35,000 Euro, the A2 E-tron wouldn’t be significantly more expensive than the Q2 is, and it might also include crossover styling cues as well as hat tips for the original A2 design. The MEB platform would make it a sibling of the VW ID.3 EV hatchback, and interestingly, another rear-wheel-drive Audi, a drivetrain configuration that’s not something the manufacturer is historically known for.
Basing a future entry-level EV design on a previous design is something that European manufacturers, such as Renault, have bet on in recent times. Renault’s R5 E-Tech won the European Car of the Year award for 2025; its design is a successful update of the LeCar and Supercinq shapes of ‘80s Renault 5 models. For Audi, the A2 is its best-known small car, thanks to its looks and technology alike.
But this is where the paths between the original car and the 2027 sequel are likely to diverge. The 2000 Audi A2 was a truly imaginative, groundbreaking small car from a manufacturer that traditionally hadn’t offered that many city cars before. It utilized lightness to an extent that a platform-shared EV can never manage: if the new A2 E-tron is based on the ID.3, it will likely weigh double when compared to the fuel-sipping predecessor.
It wasn’t just its use of an aluminum space frame construction that made the 2000 Audi A2 famous. It combined the Audi feel of substance and style with impressive mileage figures: while the regular 1.4-liter and 1.6-liter gasoline engines were rated at 39-40 MPG US, the three-cylinder turbodiesels achieved nearly 55MPG in normal specification.
But the true crown jewel was the A2 3L hyper-miling special, which could achieve the titular three-liter fuel consumption per 100km. That’s 78.4 MPG US. It managed it with some added aerodynamic improvements, lighter wheels and seats, thinner glass, and an optimized automated manual transmission, and the stripper version did away with power steering and air conditioning to save even more weight.
The original Audi A2 was an expensive flop – will the new one be another?
The A2, however, was never a sales success, far from it. According to an often quoted study by Bernstein Research, the A2 was estimated to have made a 1.33 billion Euro loss for Audi, or over 7500 Euros per car. In today’s money, that’s easily £2.3B, or $14k per car. It was far cheaper for the customer to drive an A2 than for the company to make them. By comparison, the Smart ForTwo was absolutely disastrous, as it cost its manufacturer 3.35 billion euros in losses. Audi built fewer than 180,000 A2 cars, making surviving examples future classics if nothing else.
Only a handful of classic-shape A2s have made it to the States, but as 25-year-old cars, they are now legal to import. It remains to be seen if the new EV descendant is deemed export-friendly across the Atlantic; however, BMW did bring the i3 city car to the States, and if there’s a recent car that’s playing in the same ballpark, the i3 is definitely it.
But will the end product be worth the effort? Audi was able to create a cheap-to-run and aerodynamically slick 2000-lb hatchback 25 years ago, development costs be damned, but if the future equivalent needs to be sustainable for the manufacturer and based on existing solutions such as the MEB platform, it will be irredeemably half-hearted.
It’s hard not to compare it to the original 1982 Tron movie and its wayward sequels, Tron: Legacy and Tron: Ares. Both were based on a beloved but commercially questionable original, which failed to capture the hearts of moviegoers. Halfheartedly resurrecting the E-tron brand name for this car is a little too on the nose, right?
Maybe they can convince Daft Punk to come out of retirement for the ad campaigns.
Photos: Audi
Top graphic images: Audi; DepositPhotos.com
I’m worried Audi will botch the design by plastering on their typical garish e-tron grille.
I had the 1.4 tdi as a first car. It was indeed impressively frugal as long as the speeds and power were low. Unfortunately that was the only selling point.
I had a gasoline version as a loaner once and it was… not very frugal.
It’s biggest problem was that other small diesel cars existed. The vw polo for example, could be had with the 1.9tdi four pot . That gave it a lot more power and a lot less NVH for almost the same fuel consumption.
It did convince me it was well built. Until the service fees begane to come in. The audi tax does most certainly apply.
Years later I bought a 1.8 prius. Consumption was a bit higher, but overall running costs were so SOO MUCH LOWER. With double the horsepower. And a working HVAC. And NVH not even in the same league.
And the new one will be a 2 ton compact SUV.
Yawn…
Oh, And the only reason for it to be so frugal compared to newer diesel cars was it’s absolutely foul smelling unfiltered diesel exhaust. These things were allways just legally running coal and dumping NOx into the atmosphere.
I believe this was the reason they were axed. No room for diesel exhaust equipment means no abiding exhaust laws.
I appreciate this TBG. I was always intrigued by the A2 despite the fact that they were never sold stateside. I’ve also had iffy reliability experiences with my own Audi (a Model 90), and a VW TDI diesel. But I still wanted to try an A2. Reading your info, I feel a bit better about never having been able to do so.
This is literally crazy. Here in America we constantly bicker and argue about who drives what. No one should drive a truck unless they do truck stuff all the time. But in Europe with tiny cities and tiny roads and tiny people no mention is made about no one needs anything except a city car. Now in the city speed limits and winding roads mean you are not going any faster than a brisk walking pace. So why is no one stating all city cars should have 1.2 liters, no turbo, and have top speed set at 25 mph?
Because occasionally you need to travel to other cities, using the highway.
A happy medium in between can be struck.
Just release it as is but electrified. The OG A2 looks great!
My gawd that original A2 55mpg turbo diesel with a manual transmission and *real* mpg figures just oogles my name.
I can’t wait for a return to desirable small cars in the USA. I don’t want electric and I don’t want 20 “compromises” that gets only 40mpg.
Everyone misses the point of driving the small car…. If I wanted all the crap big cars have I would get that. Small cars are trying to hard to show people aren’t poor when in reality I’m buying it as a fun commuter car because I’m not poor and have the funds for a *dedicated insane mpg work commuter car*.
I don’t WANT it to have 35 features to prove I has money and get way worse mpg because of that. I don’t want fancy transmissions that are working to keep me comfortable.
I get in this car for one thing, mpg. Otherwise I’d get the bigger other car.
Stop ruining cars
having one bloated SUV that does nothing well on a 94 month loan makes you look rich.
having five niche vehicles you own that each do one thing well… makes you look poor.
funny how that works these days.
I must be broke as hell over here trying to figure out which cheap beater I want go get next to screw around with.
Why not require polluted cities to only allow city cars and let the clean air country to have vehicles they need?
The new A2 better be aluminum Goddamnit!
Sorry it is aluminium yank
Without our aluminum there would only be a Greater Reich in the land where they call Americans “Yanks”, where ironically enough the word is spelt the same as the beans on toast people.
Dumb question:
40+ years ago, the world collectively decided that FWD was superior to RWD for most drivers in most situations. So why are tons of EV coming out with RWD powertrains now?
I wonder the same thing very often. Luckily, most EVs are optional AWD which helps mitigate the issue.
Because ESP systems and the massive tyres most cars have now mean that drivers no longer experience the limit of grip that makes FWD vs RWD an issue.
I have to hold down a button for several seconds to make my GT86 playful, and that’s what the car was designed for.
Plus RWD for an EV doesn’t involve the inefficient packaging that is needed to do the same thing with ICE.
Efficiency, torque delivery, and traction control improvements.
Transaxles were more efficient, but that gave you two options, rear engine RWD or front engine FWD. One is a lot more stable than the other and has a much easier to solve for cooling system.
Now with BEVs you got most of your weight in the middle, solving most of the handling issues with a rear transaxle setup.
All disc brakes drag a little, so by going with drums you get an efficiency gain, however drums have bad performance relatively, but since your front wheels do the majority of the braking you can get away with drums on the rear (like the ID series). As you accelerate your weight shifts towards the rear, rewarding RWD and punishing FWD .
RWD has no torque steer, and with modern traction control systems you can get the car to react nearly however you want.
I prefer FWD based drivetrains, to me they are better, but frankly your average driver is using the vehicle as an appliance.
A2, Brute?
Nice easter egg with the A2 parked in front of the Disney store. The very company that inspired a generation of nerds with Tron and split them into warring camps with Legacy and teased us with Uprising. Then decided that rather than reunite them, the best thing to do would be to piss off both sides and gave us Ares.
If they dedicate the same amount of focus on efficiency like the first A2, this could be one of the first BEVs to make Toecutter pleased!
So a slightly more expensive VW ID.3 EV? Cool.
I suspect disappointing sales is the only thing this will have in common with the A2.
They need to make a hotted up dual motor version of this. S2 E-tron?!?
they should call it the A A-tron
Audi done messed up if they don’t.
OK Mr Garvey
A2 E-Tron: Legacy
I want a custom front end to match the Daft Punk robot-faces. Paging #thebishop and The Autopian’s graphics team