One of many uber-expensive pet projects of the late Ferdinand Piëch, the original Audi A2 was a spectacular commercial failure. The overengineered hatchback, with its aluminum body and thrifty diesel engine, ended up being too costly to produce, reportedly causing the company to lose thousands of euros on every car it sold. Demand fell far short of what Ingolstadt had projected, cutting the quirky hatchback’s life cycle to just five years, during which only 176,377 cars were sold.
Now, the A2 is coming back. A far cry from its ill-fated predecessor, the moniker returns for a rear-wheel-drive EV billed as the “most efficient Audi of all time.” The Volkswagen Group has learned its lesson, and rather than developing the new electric hatchback from the ground up, it’s using the recently launched VW ID.3 Neo as its foundation. Not only does that save money, but it also shortens development time, bringing the car to market much sooner.
