Audi CEO Martin Winterkorn declared in an interview: “The wish of Audi customers for a product below the A3 for their wives or children is simply too great”. He also addied that the new model would be very dissimilar from its predessor: “We’re thinking about an extremely sporty small car including all-wheel drive, an absolute beauty.”

This is why Autobild’s article about an hypothetical Audi A1 is very interesting. Everything is still in the air, and Autobild writes about a 2010 debut.

First the segment: the new small Audi aspires to a Mini-killer status. The price-point for the base model should be between 15.000 € (the Mini One) and 20.000 € (the base A3).

Huckfeldt’s sketches show an A1/A2 with a rear inspired by the Shooting Brake concept, while the front takes some liberties with the single-frame theme

There are some doubts about what platform could be used in the small Audi: the Polo platform should be out of the running (no 4WD)the next A3/Golf VI platform is likely to be too costly, the A1 could be based on a mix of the Polo platform with components from the previous Golf platform.

Autobild goes on to rumours about possible gasoline engines, all twin-chargers: 1.2 TSI 16V, 110 hp/160 Nm; 1,4 TSI 16V in three power-steps (140 hp/200 Nm, 170 hp/240 Nm, 190 hp/250 Nm). As for diesel engines, in 2010 the conversion from pompe-duse (PD) to the common-rail injection system is likely to be in full swing, so the A1 could mount the current 1.4, 1.9 and 2.0 TDI, or new, currently unkown, engines.

Since this is Audi we are talking about, an S1 version is likely, to compete against the various Mini Cooper S JCW, with a 240 hp variant of the 2.0 Turbo-FSI engine.

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