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Sltting into the smallest parking pace in the German prestige automaker’s lineup, until now the BMW-owned MINI has had free reign in this segment – but that’s all about to change.
The baby of the Audi fleet will be on offer with a wide range of ‘personalisation’ possibilities – things like themed colours, interior lighting schemes, interior trims - designed to make your A1 different from your neighbour’s.
It also represents a push by the brand with the four rings into a completely new group of buyers – but it’s also obviously the perfect choice of second car for families who already enjoy the A4, A5, A6 or A8 as their primary mode of transportation.
You can even expect Audi to have a bit of fun with this car – it can certainly afford to do so without tarnishing the brand’s image further upmarket in the range, where customers expect – and receive – cool conservatism. If you’ve the money in your account and an A1-sized parking space in your garage, you can expect to buy an A1 in coming months.
Power will be provided by one of four efficient four-cylinder engines – two 1.6-litre turbocharged diesel engines with 66 and 77kW respectively, and two advanced TFSI petrol fours – a 1.2-litre with 63kW and a 1.4-litre with 90kW.
Efficiency is guaranteed too. All models will feature regenerative braking, which recaptures kinetic energy and stores it electrically, together with stop/start technology for the manual-transmission variants, which ensures no fuel is burnt when you’re stationary in traffic.
Complementing the standard six-speed manual transmission will be an optional seven-speed S Tronic double-clutch automatic transmission. And the fuel economy? Ultra-frugal – expect to go a long, long way between drinks, despite a diminutive fuel tank, with official figures kicking off at 3.8 litres per 100km.
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