Audi A1 and Q2 bowing out after current generations

Audi has officially ended more than a year of rumours by confirming that its two smallest models, the A1 and Q2, won’t be succeeded when their lifecycles end.

Reportedly in response to not only the brand’s focus on electric vehicles, but also on bigger more profitable models, CEO Mark Duesmann, in an interview with German business outlet, Handelsblatt, said Ingolstadt’s standing as a premium marque also played a role in the eventual decision not to renew either model.

“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,” a translated extract of the interview, picked-up by motor1.com, read.

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Currently in its second generation, the future of the A1 has been in balance ever since Duesmann told Britain’s Auto Express last year, “We do discuss what we do with the small segments – in the A1 segment we have several brands that are very successful, so we do question the A1 and the moment”.

In a subsequent interview with Automotive News Europe months later, Duesmann remarked that a decision had been taken in response not only the electrification push, but also the incoming, more stringent Euro 7 emissions regulations which favour electric vehicles at the lower-end.

“We know that offering combustion engines in the smaller segments in the future will be pretty difficult because the costs will go up. Therefore, we won’t have a successor to the A1. If the new Euro 7 rules are not too harsh, it will allow us to invest more in e-mobility,” he said.

The axing of the Q2 however, which received a facelift last year, comes as a surprise after Duesmann, in the same Auto Express interview, said, “We will certainly offer the Q2 – that might be the new entry level for us, we might not do a successor to the A1”.

While no timeline prevails, both are likely to bow out before 2025, at which point the A1 will be seven years old and the Q2 nine years into its one and only generation. A definitive date of discontinuation though could well be announced before said year.

Our thoughts on the Q2 can be read here.