Big ideas

An aluminium body built around its own Audi Space Frame, three-litre engine and up to four doors – when the Audi A2 was unveiled to the public 25 years ago, it was quite unlike anything anyone had seen before.

It was lightweight, compact and aerodynamic and tremendously frugal in terms of its fuel consumption, but its design was polarising from the start. Some loved the ‘cute Audi compact’ while others simply didn’t like it at all, particularly given some of the designs emerging from the brand at the time.

The idea of producing a 3.0-litre model was first put forward in the early 1990s, with a concept study called ‘Ringo’ developed in conjunction with the aluminium centre in Neckarsulm. It even featured its own Audi Space Frame (ASF) – although less sophisticated than that used on the Audi A8 of the time. 

Further development of the concept resulted in another two studies – one was a show car at the IAA in Frankfurt in 1997 which was given the official model designation of A1 and the nickname ‘Light Green’ on account of its colour.  A short while later, the second design study was presented, this time at the Tokyo Motor Show. Called the Audi Al open end, this one was a three-door variant which featured a variable loading area and retractable sunroof.

Despite a mixed reception, just two years later the series production A2 based on the design studies was premiered at the Frankfurt International Motor Show – featuring a body was made entirely of aluminium which was a rarity at the time.

Measuring 3.83-metres in length, 1.67-metres-wide and 1.55-metres-high, the Audi A2 was certainly compact and its aluminium construction meant that its body shell, including all four doors and the tailgate, weighed only around 153 kilograms. This was extraordinary for even a compact vehicle, weighing only about 60 percent of the body shell weight of a comparable sedan with a conventional steel body. In addition, the A2 with the 1.2 TDI powerplant, was the world’s first four-door three-litre car, although over its short production life, two petrol and three different TDI engines were also offered. The two petrol models were powered by an inline four-cylinder engine and were available with a five-speed manual transmission and front-wheel drive. The combined fuel consumption was 5.9 litres per 100 kilometres. The A2 models with diesel engines had three-cylinder units with pump-nozzle direct injection. 

With an impressive drag co-efficient of 0.28 for the base model, the A2’s looks belied its ‘slippery styling’, and later on, a model with optimised aerodynamics including adapted wheel arch trims and wheel covers as well as additional underbody paneling for turbulence-free airflow, saw that figure reduced to an incredible value of 0.25.

In 2002 Audi added a 1.6-litre FSI engine which saw the A2 reach top speeds of more than 200km/h and then in 2003, the brand offered the Audi A2 in a special edition called ‘colour.storm’ which paired bold exterior hues with equally eye-catching interiors. Imola yellow, Misano red pearl effect, Sprint blue pearl effect and Papaya orange gave the diminutive A2 even greater presence, while colour-co-ordinated interiors and matt-black painted details, such as roof and wheel arch trims, created a striking contrast. 

By July 2005, a total of 176,377 units of the Audi A2 had been built at the Neckarsulm site and while the premium compact model couldn’t quite meet the high expectations originally set for it, it has since developed something of a cult following in Europe. Readers who have visited Audi head office in Ingolstadt will most likely have seen pristine examples on the road in this Audi dominated city, and examples can sometimes be spied on the road in other German cities.

Years ahead of its time in many respects, the A2’s styling was perhaps up against it from the start, given that it was around this time that Audi debuted the TT which was an instant success thanks to its striking design – and a hard act to follow.