Audi has revived the A2 as an electric car, and the pitch behind it runs against most of the last five years of EV marketing. Electrifying drove a camouflaged prototype in Sweden and reports a usable battery of 58 kWh, 190 horsepower, rear wheel drive, and a drag coefficient of 0.24, which the video says makes it the most aerodynamic car Audi has built in this class. The original A2 arrived in 1999 with an aluminium body and never sold in large numbers. The electric one inherits the idea rather than the metal. Instead of fitting a bigger pack, the video says Audi's engineers went hunting for losses: air curtains, a covered underbody, a rear diffuser, bespoke tyres, and a lower friction transmission oil that Audi reckons is worth up to eight miles of winter range by itself.
Battery capacity has been the headline number in this segment for years, and a car led by efficiency raises a different set of questions for buyers. Peak DC charging here is 105 kW according to the video, which is modest next to the 800 volt systems appearing in the class above. That matters because efficiency and charging speed pay off in different places. Consumption decides what the miles cost, and it compounds every night for anyone charging at home on an off peak tariff. Charging speed decides how long the stop is on a long motorway run, and no amount of aerodynamic work shortens it. The chemistry points the same way. LFP packs are generally regarded as more tolerant of routine charging to 100 percent than nickel based chemistries, which suits a car expected to live on a home charger. Anyone doing regular long distance work should look at the charging curve before the drag coefficient.
The efficiency claim is the part Electrifying set out to test. The presenter reports 4.4 miles per kilowatt hour over about an hour and a half of mixed urban, rural and motorway driving with the cabin held at 22 degrees, and says the support car managed 5.55. On the video's own arithmetic, the higher figure works out at roughly 322 miles from the 58 kWh usable pack. The driving impressions are positive without being breathless. The presenter describes it as solid and planted, with steering that has natural weight rather than the over assisted setups she says are common in electric cars, good rear headroom and legroom, and a thick A pillar as the main complaint. Regeneration is adjustable through paddles and gets close to one pedal driving without bringing the car fully to a stop. The video also reports 10 to 80 percent DC charging in 26 minutes and bidirectional capability for powering a home or equipment. Audi has said nothing official on price, but the video expects a start just over £30,000, against the £33,000 Kia EV3 and the £36,000 Volkswagen ID.3 it names as targets. Audi also used the drive to demonstrate the aerodynamic work in virtual reality, with the video showing airflow moving over and under the body both with and without the underbody changes in place.
Bottom line: if these numbers hold up in production, this is the more interesting way to build a small electric car, and the one that ages better. A bigger battery is a cost you pay once and then carry around for the life of the car. Efficiency is a discount that arrives every time you plug in. The catch is price, and Audi knows it. The video points at the aluminium space frame as the reason the original was too expensive, and a clever underbody is an even harder thing to sell in a showroom than aluminium was. Start this above £33,000 and the same story writes itself twice.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.