Audi A2 EV & A1 Range-Extender dropped

It seems Audi is getting cold feet on its electric car plans with the Audi A2 EV and the Audi A1 Range-Extender reported to be dropped.

It’s starting to look as if car makers are waking up to the reality that electric cars are not something car buyers, on the whole, want to spend their hard earned cash on.

We recently reported that the BMW range of EVs is being re-thought with the BMW i3 likely to be just a range extender and plans to extend the i-BMW beyond the i3 and i8 Supercar put on ice. And now it looks like Audi are going the same route.

CAR are reporting that Audi has cancelled the A2 EV – due to arrive in 2015 at around £40k – and that the A1 Range-Extender is also heading the same way.

The Audi A2 EV – which ‘boasted’ a 114bhp electric motor with a 125 mile range (in the real world?) and was planned to take on the BMW i3 – is now thought to be so unlikely to sell at the price point envisaged (£40k) that the only option is to drop production plans completely.

Even the A1, with its range-extender Wankel engine, is thought to be too long on price and too short on margins as car makers finally start to realise that car buyers don’t want their EV toys with big price tags and useless range.

About time too.