The original Audi A2 was one of the German auto brand’s quirkiest, most innovative models ever, and now its name is being reused on a vehicle that bears some resemblance.
The new Audi A2 – now wearing the e-tron suffix – was officially twill be unveiled in the northern autumn (September to November) of 2026, as the new entry point to the luxury brand’s growing lineup of electric vehicles (EVs).
Like the original combustion-powered A2, the new entry-level EV has an upright, almost MPV-like stance but with a rakish roofline.
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As recent spy photos have shown, it has even more of a tallboy hatch look than other Volkswagen Group small EVs like the Cupra Born with which it’s expected to share its MEB underpinnings. The larger Audi Q4 e-tron is also based on the MEB platform.
The A2 e-tron will be built in Audi’s hometown of Ingolstadt in Germany. The Ingolstadt factory currently produces the Q2, A3, A6 e-tron and Q6 e-tron.
Audi says it has the youngest portfolio among its rivals, and its next two major launches will be the A2 e-tron and, at the other end of the spectrum, the all-new Q9 full-size SUV.
The A2 will take on the upcoming next-generation Mercedes-Benz A-Class, which will gain the option of electric power in addition to combustion powertrains, while also reportedly adopting more of an SUV-like shape.
However, the A2 e-tron is set to be electric-only, even though it’ll fill the void left by the moribund A1 hatchback and Q2 small SUV, both of which are petrol-powered.
The original A2 was produced between 1999 and 2005 and, while it became a darling of critics and a cult classic, it never sold in the numbers Audi hoped it would.
Around 176,000 examples found homes globally, but the 3.8m-long city car was never offered in Australia.
Former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn said “buyers never really fell in love with the narrow and tall design”, while the bespoke aluminium spaceframe meant the A2 couldn’t be priced “sufficiently aggressively”.
Much as Mercedes-Benz moved away from the quirky tallboy shape of its first two generations of A-Class in favour of a more conventional hatchback body, Audi belatedly replaced the A2 at the bottom of its lineup with the A1 hatch using a more cost-effective platform shared with Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda.
Employing ubiquitous MEB underpinnings should help keep costs down for the new A2 too, though it’s likely to be more expensive than the A1 and Q2 it’ll supplant.
In Australia, the Q2 lineup currently opens at $49,400 before on-road costs, with the A1 – now available only in a single variant – priced at $51,500 before on-road costs.
Audi’s cheapest EV here is the Q4 e-tron, which starts from $84,900 before on-road costs, leaving plenty of room for a more affordable battery-powered option positioned beneath it. The German brand has yet to confirm, however, whether the Q2 e-tron will come here.