Audi A1 and Q2 SUV replacements canned

Audi has announced that it has no plans to replace its current Audi A1 supermini or the Audi Q2 SUV as part of a new strategy to focus on larger, more profitable cars.

With the Audi Q2 set to end production next year and the Audi A1 micro to soldier on until around 2025, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann told German newspaper Handelsblatt that both models' replacements have already been axed, with the Audi range set to kick-off in the future with the A3.

"We have decided not to build the A1 anymore, and there will be no successor model from the Q2 either. We have also realigned Audi as a premium brand," he said.

"We will limit our model range at the bottom and expand it at the top."

First introduced back in 2016, the first-generation Q2 is made at both Audi's Ingolstadt HQ and in China, where it gets a long-wheelbase Q2L version.

Chinese buyers also get the option of an all-electric Audi Q2 e-tron powered by a 38kWh battery that provides for a range of up to 265km (NEDC).

Pressuring Audi to drop its smallest models are incoming Euro 7 emissions regulations that will require all combustion-powered vehicles to require additional expensive technology that will be virtually impossible to recoup on a cheap car.

It's thought the A3 will become Audi's most affordable car until a new family of small EVs arrives in the next couple of years.

The German brand has already announced it will introduce its last combustion-powered car in 2026 and confirmed it will end production of all petrol and diesels by 2033, although they could be continued to be produced in China.

Next up in its expansion into all-electric vehicles will be the arrival of the 2022 Audi Q6 e-tron – the sister car for the incoming Porsche Macan that will sit on the car-maker's advanced PPE architecture.