No Quattro for Audi A1: plans revealed

posted: Thursday 19 November 2009 by Alison in: Audi Coupe

Reports say the new Audi A1 will be made without the all wheel drive Quattro technology we’ve come to know as synonymous with the Audi brand. Front wheel drive will now be favoured on the A1, and the sportier S1 and RS1 will also have front wheel drive. The A1 Coupé should debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, ready for an August market debut in Europe.

The A1 will be Audi’s competitive offering at the smaller end of the premium market, with a plan to produce 90,000 vehicles a year. What’s more, Audi believes that between the A1 and the A3, there is rooom for an “environmental” A2 model, all of which is aimed at getting Audi back into smaller models.

The sporty Audi S1 model should appear later, possibly in February 2011, and an A1 cabrio model is planned for 2012. Will it be successful or will the market miss the AWD Quattro technology too much? It seems that Audi can still bet on removing the Quattro in favour of a lighter and less expensive car, but it will depend on whether that’s what the market wants from the popular brand. In the pics is the Audi Metroproject Quattro concept.