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Sucessor to the frugal Audi A2 has reached the concept car stage

The plan to launch a successor to the Audi A2 has reached the concept car stage, with a design for the car being shown inside Audi’s Ingolstadt HQ, according to the firm’s R&D chief, Michael Dick.

The new car will “be recognisable as an A2 but very different from the old car”, said Dick. However, the Audi A2 will not be launched this year.

Audi wants to release an electric A2 at the same time as the conventionally powered model, so the car’s design and engineering is taking longer than it would for a normal small hatchback.

“We will not make the same mistake as with the first A2 and do it all by ourselves,” said Dick. “We also want to build an electric version straight away. That has consequences. At the moment you think up a car and make it electric afterwards. With that car [the A2], things go the other way around.”

The Audi A2 will not be based on the VW Up platform that’s currently under development and due to be launched next year. Instead, it will use what Dick described as “a group platform of the next generation” and fits between the forthcoming A1 supermini and A3. “It’s bigger than the Up — at least as big as the A1, but with a different body style.”

Audi has no plans to build its own version of the Up in the near future. “For now the A2 has our priority,” said Dick. “And we also have to introduce the A1.” But he said if the firm were to produce a vehicle based on the Up, it would have to be electric.

“For Audi and its ‘Vorsprung durch technik’ philosophy the Up would only work if it was electric,” he said. “It would have to be different from the VW and would clearly have to be premium. We are looking with interest to Toyota and what it is doing with the iQ. It also wants to be premium.”

Dan Stevens/Ralf Dennisen

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