As part of Volkswagen Group, Audi has a lot to prove when it comes to a car that is made for the city in compact style. In 2005, the A2 was discontinued and had been the subcompact from Audi and ever since we have not seen another car that was similar in proportions and made an attempt to be the right car to take the place the A2 had held for so long.
There have already been some failed attempts to design a car that would compete in this market include the Urban Concept bubble car and the A1 e-tron that had a rotary range extender which were both shot down by Volkswagen Group so fast it’s as if they were shot from a cannon. There was even a mock up subcompact that was given and even heftier heave-ho by VW Group as it was called a VW Up! wit Audi badging.
Now we have word there is an Audi subcompact car that is scheduled to show up in the Paris auto show in 2016 ready to give us a look at a car that will be sport and functional as a rival to the Fiat 500, Mini Cooper, and Smart ForTwo in the small luxury car segment. This new Audi is to be available in both two and four-door setups and can be the next great offering from Audi with the world leaning toward many more of these tiny cars.
The original plan for this new car was to put in a 200 horsepower 1.2-liter two-cylinder V-twin engine that comes from Ducati. Unfortunately the brains behind this possibility have left Audi and no longer will be pushing the idea, so what the new Audi will be is still a bit of a question, but there may be some answers to give us a bit of comfort.
Instead of the Ducati paring the partnership is expected to switch to Volkswagen and use architecture from the Seat and Skoda models to bring in the same New Small Family (NSF) architecture that underpins the VW Up! (there’s some irony for you) and give the car a dynamic and engaging feeling. The Skoda makes the most likely partner as the two could truly benefit from each other, giving the Skoda a new City Streak EV and the Audi city car would be able to become and all-electric model, making this an interesting paring that might work out perfectly.
It’s hard to know exactly what the new Audi city car will be but with the knowledge and scheduling of having one ready for Paris in 2016 the pressure is on Audi to make this car right and give it what it needs to be a car that actually takes on the right features to be a true small luxury car that Audi can be proud to put its name on. I for one will be watching this activity with bated breath to see what VW Group offers us with the luxury name attached and what it matches up with.
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