Al₂

These two concept cars are similar, but different in character. The "basic" Al₂ to the left is more of a city car, comfortable and useful. The Al₂ Open End to the right is a two-door version more directed towards fun.

The distinctive fenders, the whole body shape, the headlights are all very similar to the production A2. The most noteable difference is the area between the headlights where the concept car is more aggressive and the production car has a real grill.

While I think that the front of the concept car, especially the missing grill, looks a bit better than the production car, I am glad that these rims did not make it to production.
The A2 has the second seat row lowered a bit. It appears that this is not the case with the concept car.

A tidy car without frills, with subtle colours, blacked out lights front and back, two well-dressed women and an expensive luggage set: The Al₂ was definitively headed for life-style!

In this perspective, too, the Al₂ resembles the A2 very much. Even the rear window that reaches far into the roof, with a (smaller) spoiler is already implemented. However, the production A2 did not get the ribs on the front and rear bumper or the roof. By the way, these roof ribs were echoed at the A6 Allroad quattro.

Ah, luxury in a simple manner. Everything uncluttered and beautiful. Nice Aluminium parts fit well with the bright interior. The blue-ish parts echo the rims in their colour.

The heart of it all: A supercharged V8 TDI, putting out 280hp and 800Nm! Just kidding! A high-tech threecylinder direct fuel injection engine drives the concept car. What is interesting is that this engine is neatly presented, while the production A2 does not even feature a normal hood/bonnet: It keeps its engine sealed in normal use and only provides access to refill inlets of water and oil.

The Open End was the fun version of the Al₂. It was a two seated, two door, semi-cabrio-pickup ;)
The car sits a bit higher than the "standard" Al₂. Please not the 5-spoke rims. The spokes are doubled. Wonder where you have seen that before? Look at the A6 Allroad quattro factory rims. They are similar. Not exactly fun to clean, but cool-looking.

Here the canvas roof is opened and the tailgate removed.

The Open End has the same futuristic rearlights as the Al₂, but its ribs on the bumpers are much more less visible. The rear window consists of three transparent panels. Also differing: The Open End has indented Audi rings on the tailgate, whereas the normal Al₂ has the normal chrome rings.

The cargo bay without tailgate and top.

While the design of the interior is similar to that of the normal Al₂, the choice of dark colours let it appear totally different. Which one is better? Hard to say, but dark colours are surely beneficial for an active vehicle, which might even see some dirt in its life.

While the normal Al₂ went into production as A2 with only little optical changes to the body, not much else was carried over. The interior is far less futuristic in the production car. More importantly, the Open End was not produced. The reason for both facts is I think that the A2 is designed as a high-tech fuel saving vehicle. The ideas of luxury or activity and fun were only remotely considered. Watching how bad the A2 sells, the question must be permitted if these decisions were correct.