Audi Q2 will be discontinued along with A1 hatch, brand will focus on high-end cars instead – CEO

The Audi A1 and Audi Q2 will not live to see another generation. The discontinuation of the two models was revealed by Audi CEO Markus Duesmann in an interview with German business newspaper Handelsblatt. We already know that the A1 will be retired after the current generation, but the Q2’s fate is new.

“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,” the Audi chief said.

The Q2 is the smallest model in Audi’s SUV range. The compact crossover made its debut in March 2016 and will soon turn six years old. Today’s car is the mid-life facelift that surfaced in September 2020. Riding on the VW Group’s MQB platform, the Q2 is something of a raised supermini, as the Q3 is the proper four-ringed rival to the BMW X1 and Mercedes-Benz GLA.

The smallest Q car is mainly for Europe, but there’s a long wheelbase Q2 L in China with an extra 38 mm between the wheels. The world’s biggest car market also gets an electric e-tron version of the car with a 38 kWh battery and 265 km of range. Then there’s the SQ2 performance model with 300 PS/400 Nm and a 0-100 km/h time below five seconds.

The A1 name has been around since 2010 and the compact hatchback is in its second generation now, available solely in five-door form (first-gen had a three-door option). Today’s junior Audi debut in mid-2018.

The previously-cited reason for the A1’s discontinuation is the ever-tightening emissions regulations. This makes it very expensive to develop internal combustion engines for smaller cars in the future. Of course, small cars have slimmer profit margins while the high-end models that Audi wants to focus on bring in much bigger profits.

Like the size and style of the Audi Q2? It’s available in Malaysia in 150 hp 1.4 TFSI form, for RM237k.

GALLERY: Audi Q2 facelift

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