Audi A2 Takes Aim at BMW i3

Audi called the A2 it showed at Frankfurt a "concept," but the firm's R&D director, Michael Dick, confirmed it will be built. There will be two versions: an all-electric and a plug-in version with an additional gas engine.

It's clear Audi is taking aim at the BMW i3. Audi design head Stefan Sielaff told us it is a megacity vehicle, the same term BMW uses. Dick explains the A2's lightweight multi-material body can be built lighter yet cheaper than BMW's LifeDrive aluminum and carbon-fiber structure: "We will achieve a breakthrough in price and volume for carbon technology on the A2."

The A2 is tall and has a very short overall length for a four-seater, at 149.6 inches. The electric concept is said to weigh 2550 pounds. With this light mass, Audi claims it can do up to 120 miles on a charge of its comparatively small 31-kilowatt-hour underfloor battery pack, and that charging demands just 2 hours on a 400-volt outlet. Audi hasn't decided on U.S. import, according to a source, though it doesn't need to worry about fuel economy standards because of Volkswagen's U.S. lineup.

Audi sold a car called A2 before, from 1999 to 2005, though it wasn't exported to North America. It was designed with fuel mileage as a priority and so used the company's aluminum spaceframe and panels, and was also distinguished by a very low-drag shell.

The concept car has steer-by-wire technology, but Dick says the production car will not. It will have an aluminum frame with carbon-fiber strengthening and some carbon-fiber exterior panels.

Although he wouldn't give details of the plug-in, Dick said the engine part of the equation is spark ignition, not a diesel. We asked him if it was related to the propulsion of the Audi A1 e-tron concept, and he smiled. Dick is a fan of that system, which uses a single-rotor Wankel engine as the range extender. It's ultra-light and compact, it fits the spare wheelwell, and because it runs at optimum revs and load, it's more efficient than conventional Wankels. The BMW i3 will also have an optional compact range-extender in the form of a two-cylinder motorcycle engine.