AUDI

A2 Concept: the brand's curious electrified model with aluminum bodywork and matrix LED headlights

All enthusiasts of the four-wheel brand will surely remember the original Audi A2. The car was on sale between 1999 and 2005, and was a very curious model, as it offered a lot of space in a length of just 3.80 meters, in addition to using an aluminum body. The only thing that everyone didn't like was his appearance. The A2 Concept, which was unveiled in 2011, was designed to remedy this.

“This prototype offers a preview of driving in the megacities of the future. With purely electric propulsion, it is a high-end vehicle for urban agglomerations, with generous space”, said the official statement.

An evolution in Audi's ultralight construction has limited the weight to 1,150 kilograms. It measured just 3,804 mm in length, 1,693 in width and 1,494 in height. The show car was painted in matte Electro White and its opaque glass roof could be made transparent at the push of a button.

The front of the design exercise was dominated, as in all Audis, by the Singleframe grille, in a version specially adapted to electric propulsion: behind it was the charging socket.

Another standout aspect of the A2 Concept at the time was the Matrix Beam Matrix LED headlights. As we already know, the diodes could turn on and off separately to perfectly illuminate the road in any position and without glare.

In the side view, there was a characteristic feature of the Audi A2 Concept: the Audi Dynamic Light, a luminous band that united the headlights with the taillights. When the car was not in use, it appeared black and when the driver approached, it lit up in blue as a greeting and projected the door handles, which were integrated into this strip and stood out when running a hand over them.

When the car was moving, the dynamic light glowed bright orange. When a blinker was activated, the corresponding side was illuminated, and when braking, a pulse of red light traveled to the rear. The flashlights were also manufactured using Matrix Beam technology.

The interior took advantage of the possibilities offered by electric propulsion: the ground had no central tunnel and the console between the front seats could be lowered, allowing free access.

The steering wheel of the Audi A2 Concept was flattened above and below, with a single spoke. Only the blinkers and the windshield wipers continued to work through the traditional steering column levers.

The four individual seats of the Audi A2 Concept were extraordinarily light, as their structures were formed from aluminium. Three struts joined these benches to the ground, which increased footroom at the rear. There were storage compartments under the seats.

As we said at the beginning, the Audi A2 Concept was a purely electric vehicle. Its lithium-ion battery, housed in the false bottom of the vehicle, stored 31 kWh of energy, of which 24 kWh were available for use.

The electric motor was transversely mounted at the front of the car and sent 85 kW (116 hp) of maximum power and 270 Nm of torque to the front wheels via a single-speed transmission.

The car advertised a range of 200 km in the European driving cycle. A full battery charge took approximately 1.5 hours with 400 volt three-phase current, and about 4 hours with 230 volt household current.

The protagonist of the images accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 9.3 seconds and its top speed was limited to 150 km/h. A McPherson scheme at the front and a torsional axle at the rear gave it agility in driving. The steering and brakes dispensed with mechanical connection (they were of the 'by wire' type).

Despite this and other advances, the truth is that it took a long time before Audi manufactured its first series electric car, the e-tron (now called Q8 e-tron), which was presented in 2018.

Autonews