Audi makes it official: A1 and Q2 making way for new EV in 2026

Audi has spoken out on the futures of the A1 and Q2 by confirming the pair’s discontinuation in 2026 without combustion engine replacements.

Set to be succeeded by an EV crossover positioned below the Q4 e-torn in fact, the extended lifecycle comes after a series of contradicting reports alleging both will bow-out in 2025 as per Audi’s focus of being a premium brand rather than having a presence in every segment.

Four years of speculation

The announcement of the A1 and Q2’s end comes after former Audi boss Markus Duesmann hinted as far back as 2021 that the former could be living on borrowed time as a result of it having become too expensive and not in-line with the brand’s move towards complete electrification by 2030.

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“In the A1 segment we have several brands that are very successful, so we do question the A1 and the moment,” Duesmann told Auto Express at the time.

“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.”

Again commenting on the A1 a year later, after initially having assured the Q2’s future, Duesmann was quoted by German business publication Handelsblatt as saying, “we have decided not to build the A1 anymore, and there will be no successor model from the Q2 either.

“We have also realigned Audi as a premium brand. We will limit our model range at the bottom and expand it at the top.”

Not 2025, but 2026

While both were reported at the time as being in the drop zone in 2025, current Audi CEO, Gernot Döllner, has affirmed 2026 as the pair’s end, making this year the final full year of market availability.

“A really positive part of our strategy is that in the A-segment, we rely on Volkswagen Group synergies. We use platforms shared with other brands and [integrate] Audi differentiation in terms of quattro and power and technology,” Döllner told Autocar.

“That strategy is very healthy and we will move on with that. That will also be our strategy in the battery-electric age”.

Despite stopping short of confirming whether the newcomer will revive the A2 moniker last used on an EV concept shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show 14 years ago, and before that, as Audi’s smallest model from 1999 to 2005, Döllner said, “I believe that Audi is the right brand to show premium from the A- to the D-segment.

“There are not many brands in the world, but I think Audi can have a true premium offer in the A-segment. We will come up with highly emotional and attractive models also in the lower segments”.

No changes likely

In a likely move similar to the current Q3 that will be replaced within the coming months, the A1 will soldier on without any updates, having remained virtually unchanged inside and out since the current second generation’s unveiling in 2018.

The opposite, however, applies to the Q2, which benefitted from an interior redesign last year as what was touted to be its last overhaul since its one-and-only facelift four years prior.

Get them while still possible

As it stands, both continue to be offered locally with pricing between R528 400 and R590 790 for the A1 range, and R748 280 to R770 980 for the Q2 – both line-ups spanning two derivatives each.

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