Audi Q2 and A1 to be axed after current generations
Audi is preparing to kill off its two smallest models, as slow sales and lower profits the car maker refocus its efforts on larger, more expensive and less price-sensitive segments.
The current Audi A1 city car and Audi Q2 small SUV will be the last, as Audi confirms its two smallest and most affordable models will be killed at the end of their life cycles, likely by the middle of this decade.
Speaking to German newspaper Handelsblatt, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann confirmed the A1 and Q2 won’t be replaced – with the company instead focusing on larger and more expensive “premium” vehicles which attract higher profit margins.
“We have decided not to build the A1 anymore [after the end of the current car’s life cycle], and there will be no successor model from the Q2 either. We have also realigned Audi as a premium brand,” Duesmann told the publication (as quoted by Motor1).
“We will limit our model range at the bottom and expand it at the top. We are prioritizing other segments.”
Duesmann has previously confirmed the A1 would be axed, amid slowing sales of city cars globally – but this represents the first confirmation the Q2 won’t live beyond the current (and first) generation, despite growing sales of the SUV body style, and being one of the only truly compact luxury SUVs.
Sales data compiled by JATO Dynamics researchers (as cited by Automotive News Europe) lists nearly 57,000 A1s as sold in Europe in 2021 – exceeding the 53,183 Q2s sold over the same period, but behind the circa-90,000 examples of the slightly-larger Q3 small SUV sold in Europe last year.
In Australia, VFACTS industry sales data report 680 A1 city cars and 1621 Q2 SUVs as sold last year – compared to 5707 Q3 small SUVs. The Q2’s sales figure was likely affected by a lack of stock ahead of the arrival of a facelifted model in mid-2021, however.
The axing of the A1 and Q2 will increase the price of the most affordable Audi model from $33,200 before on-road costs for an A1 30 TFSI today, to $46,300 plus on-road costs for an A3 35 TFSI hatchback (before any further price rises) – or over $50,000 drive-away.
Meanwhile, the price of the most affordable Audi SUV would increase from $43,600 (Q2 35 TFSI) to $48,300 (Q3 35 TFSI), both before on-road costs.
While the A1 and Q2 won’t be treated to new generations, there’s plenty of time remaining to buy the current models, as – using Audi’s typical seven- to eight-year life cycle as a guide – the Q2 should remain on sale until 2023 or 2024, while the A1 should stick around until 2025 or 2026.
The first-generation Audi A1 was revealed in 2010 with three- and five-door body styles, followed of the second-generation car’s debut in 2018 – with each car sharing its underpinnings with the fifth- and sixth-generation Volkswagen Polo city cars respectively.
The Q2 city SUV went on sale overseas in 2016, based on the full-size version of the Volkswagen Group’s ubiquitous MQB architecture used to underpin the larger A3 and Q3 (rather than the smaller ‘MQB A0’ variant beneath the latest A1), with the option of all-wheel drive.
Alongside an electric Q2L for China, the first-generation A1 and Q2 each spawned performance-oriented, all-wheel-drive S versions – with a 170kW turbo four-cylinder and six-speed manual gearbox in the former, or a 221kW/400Nm turbo engine and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic in the latter.
An all-wheel-drive, second-generation S1 was never built, likely a combination of low demand, and its platform’s lack of support for all-wheel drive.
It remains to be seen whether the Audi A1 and Q2 are replaced with electric vehicles – though Audi has expressed interest in expanding its electric car portfolio, given every new model the company launches from 2026 onwards will be all-electric.
“We have to cut back. We don’t want to add the same portfolio electrically and we do make purpose-built electric cars because we can offer more functionality in purpose-built electric cars. So that means we certainly cut back our combustion-engined car portfolio in the next ten years – we have to and we will,” CEO Duesmann told British magazine Auto Express last year.
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