Audi is ending production of its two cheapest cars and confirming an electric sports car for 2027. The Q2 stops in Ingolstadt this month. The A1 is winding down in Martorell, Spain. Both exits were buried inside a broader announcement about the company's manufacturing network, which is the kind of document where you learn that nearly 2.3 million units of combined production history are being quietly retired.
The Q2 launched in 2016 at €29,000 in Germany, sold 887,231 units across its decade-long run, and never came to the United States. The A1 has been around since 2010, generated 1,389,658 sales over two generations, and started at €22,950 in its final form in Sportback and Allstreet body styles. Both pulled strong numbers at launch. Both saw sales taper off as the segment shifted and Audi's portfolio moved upmarket.
The A2 e-tron Fills the Gap
The replacement for both models is one car: the A2 e-tron. It debuts this autumn and is expected to ride the MEB+ platform, the updated version of the architecture underpinning the ID.3 Neo. That car launched with 58 and 79 kWh battery options and a WLTP-certified range of up to 630 km. The A2 e-tron's specs are unconfirmed, but a platform overlap of that kind suggests comparable numbers are in play.
One A2 replacing two combustion models is not a like-for-like swap in volume terms. An entry-level EV priced within reach of the A1's former starting point would help bridge the gap, and Audi has pointed toward accessible EV pricing as a priority. Whether it can thread that needle without cannibalizing the Q4 e-tron from below is the more interesting question.
Böllinger Höfe Gets a Sports Car
The announcement also confirmed that Audi's electric sports car enters production in 2027 at the Böllinger Höfe site in Heilbronn, the company's low-volume specialist facility that previously handled the R8 and current e-tron GT. The model was previewed as the Concept C: a two-seat coupe with a retractable hardtop, a minimalist interior, and design cues distinct from Audi's current road car lineup.
Audi's electric sports car sits alongside the Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman in the VW Group's electric sports coupe plan. Both share a platform. Böllinger Höfe's small-series focus means production numbers will be modest, which is either a feature or a problem depending on how the pricing lands.
What the Concept C showed was a car that looked like Audi was trying again after the R8's end. At Böllinger Höfe, from 2027, at what volume and what price remain the open questions.
