If you want an ‘affordable’ Audi, you have to strike now! Soon it will be over and out for the Audi A1 and Q2. They no longer match the future vision of the German premium brand, says director Markus Duesmann. Can you guess three times what that vision of the future is…
The answer is not difficult, of course. Because ‘no longer fit with the vision of the future’ is a manager’s peak for ‘no longer yielding enough money’. And so the Audi A1 and Q2 go head-to-head. The margins on the smallest and most affordable Audi’s are too small. The demise of the A1 was previously announced, now it is also known that the Q2 will not get a successor.
A German premium brand that is scaling back its model range? huh?!
In that sense, Audi is partly turning back its expansion drive. Like other German premium manufacturers, the Ingolstadt brand has covered every imaginable niche in its product range over the past twenty years. In the 1980s, Audi had four models: the 80/90, 100/200, V8 and Coupé. Now there are no fewer than twenty-eight (more if we count the Allroad, S and RS variants).
Audi A1 and Q2 have to clear the field because they do not yield enough
Audi will focus on the higher segments, says Duesmann, where profits are the highest. Moreover, the CEO assumes that the global chip shortage will continue for a while. And then you’d be better off putting your precious chips in expensive, profitable models, rather than smaller, lower-margin cars like the Audi A1 and Q2.