The Audi A2 returns as an electric companion

“The A2 E-Tron has no predecessor.”

When its exterior designer, Jakob Hirzel said that, I could have fallen off my chair. If it had no predecessor then what car did I own for five years and what car did Hirzel himself own for eleven years. It seemed a strange thing to say, like BMW launching the R50 Mini and saying it had no predecessor.

It’s over twenty years since Audi ceased production of the original A2, a car designed by Luc Donckerwolke and Peter Schreyer. At the time it was somewhat underappreciated and costly, especially for Audi which lost money on the whole project, but today it is respected for its design, innovation and engineering, a car way ahead of its time.

Looking at the images you might also wonder why Hirzel would say such a thing, just look at the rear with its glazing split by a spoiler. That apparently comes from the Audi 100 Avant of the 1980s. What about the side profile windows, clearly a nod to the original? No, that’s a regular Audi thing, part of the clear one third, two thirds core pillar of design. The split floor in the boot? Most EVs have that. Even the black panel at the front echoes ever so slightly the black panel that hid the service essentials on the original, although Hirzel says it’s an evolution of the Audi single-frame grille.

I suspect Hirzel is actually giving a corporate or marketing line, because there’s no doubt that this is very much a successor. But he is right in that is a very different car. For a start, it sits on the same MEB platform as the new Volkswagen ID.3 Neo and many other VW Group models. That means that unlike the original with its petrol and diesel engines snugly fitted beneath that narrow, removable bonnet, the new A2 is battery-electric.

It’s also bigger, much bigger at 4,324mm (the original was 3,826mm). The wheelbase is 2,764mm, similar to that of the Q2 which along with the A1, the A2 replaces. I did also ask if there will be a crossover version of the new A2, effectively a new Q2, but Hirzel insisted there are no plans with no sign of the usual giveaway smile or comment of “you’ll have to wait and see”.

The A2 project started three years ago under the stewardship of former Audi design boss, Marc Lichte. Hirzel does say that like the original, the idea for the A2 E-Tron was to create a car that offers more than mainstream competitors in terms of quality, value and progressiveness, a car for those who take a more intellectual approach. 

“The MEB platform made it clear it was going to be rear-wheel drive and while crossovers were becoming mainstream, we wanted to achieve more than just filling mainstream volume, we wanted to shoot over that and so we came up with this progressive approach,” says Hirzel. “Everybody agreed that was the direction for Audi and we had a design vision that remained consistent. Within half a year the design theme was set.”

One of the biggest focuses of the design was aerodynamics, resulting in the A2 E-Tron having a drag co-efficient of just 0.24, a slight improvement over the 0.25 of the original. It’s also the most efficient Audi model with a claimed power consumption as low as 12.8kWh/100km (4.85mi/kWh), much as the famed 1.2-litre TDI, or the “3L” as it was known, did before with its 94mpg. Achieving that required Hirzel doing something he had never done before, spending time in a wind tunnel.

While aerodynamic efficiency was critical, he sees it as a functional part of the design, with a clear overall aim to make it recognisable as an Audi.

“We wanted to make the design clean, bold and striking, so that you can stand in a city and see the car on the other side of the road and at first glance say that’s something new, that’s an Audi,” he says. “It was important for us to have this 'first glance' feeling in every angle of the car, every perspective, to make a statement that is clearly Audi.”

It’s also clearly A2 with wheels pushed to the four corners within pronounced wheel arches. The side profile has the same basic glasshouse outline and the door panels fill the two-thirds mandate, essentially clutter-free except for the door handles. Without going with flush handles, Hirzel says these were the most aerodynamic option with capacitive technology to open the doors, the same with the buttons on the inside.

That black front panel that vaguely hints at the original is another area that required extensive attention from the design team.

“We have to deal with the complexity of more sensors, things like radar and pedestrian detection systems,” he says. “We realised we needed to deal with this differently to how we did in the past, integrating all these functions in a way that looks attractive, which is a challenge, but we managed it in a new way.”

Naturally there are LED daytime running lights, with a number of selectable light signatures, but there are also subtle but key geometric axes that run from the edge of the lights up through the bonnet, over the curved roof to the rear. Here aerodynamics again play a key part with elements to reduce drag, a diffuser and the split window, as well as a clean surface to the tailgate featuring an LED light strip that is split by a precision moulded Audi badge.

The interior also features precision mouldings, but Vladimir Macoun, who headed up the interior design, says they wanted to achieve a cosy feeling, an atmosphere of well-being.

The lines of the IP and door panels flow neatly around the cabin, providing sculpted surfaces that are both stylish and functional. The uppers are covered in Softwrap made from recycled materials, which on some trim versions are reminiscent of the hemp that was used in the early BMW i3. The cosiness continues with one of Macoun’s favourite elements, the buttons that fit into the stitching on the seats and centre console.

“They are like the ones you would find on a couch, taking inspiration from cosy furniture,” says Macoun. “We wanted to have this feeling in the interior which is why we are playing with these details.”

Details include the return of tactile items, with the new A2 being the first Audi to move away from purely touch controls on the steering wheel back to scrollers. The air vents, another of Macoun’s favourite elements, have a solid feel to their adjustment sliders, and there’s more physical interaction with the use of the Fidlock magnetic fastening system for the charge cable bag and tension straps in the boot, as well as the removable cupholders, similar to the YouClip system used by Dacia.

“The ribs on the cupholder mirror those of the lower part of the centre console and on the ventilation and speaker grille,” he says. “We love playing with details but we always try to integrate a function, we are not doing details for details’ sake, they always need a meaning.”

This is an A2 for a digital age which means a panoramic curved UI consisting of an 11.9-inch Audi virtual cockpit display and a 12.8-inch MMI touchscreen. In typical Audi fashion both are straightforward to use with simple icons and menu structures. For the first time the MMI includes Audi Connected Work with Microsoft Outlook and Teams so when you are charging you can have a Teams meeting, or with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto you could avoid work and listen to podcasts or music through the optional Sonos sound system.

Admittedly the new A2 E-Tron does not have the same obvious design and engineering innovation of the original, but it is much more than a reskinned Volkswagen ID.3 Neo and the team worked hard to give it personality. 

“Car design has come to a point where some have tried to make a car that follows aerodynamics, but they have lost the character of the car, it becomes a bit of an appliance. That is clearly what we wanted to avoid,” says Hirzel. “A car is never an appliance, it is an object that has a creature-like appearance because it has extremities, it has wheels that connect to the ground, it moves as a dynamic object. You have something that you drive and it should never be anonymous. You should see a face in it and we wanted to give that face a distinctive look.

“It’s a sweet spot of a car, you will never look underdressed in it, but you’re also not overly boasting with it either,” he continues. “It’s exactly in the right spot to be everything and go everywhere, and that’s the real-life companion. I think that really fits the character of this car.”

This sounds very much like Audis of old, cars that were classy and made a statement without being brash. I’m not convinced it has as much personality as the original, but in the new Audi A2 E-Tron, the design team have not only brought back a name, they’ve brought back a design attitude.