Electric City Car on Audi Agenda

Audi has just announced that an electric city car will form part of its plans for future market domination…and help with that little issue of the environment.

By Gareth Dean

While Audi may be in the process of a massive new model assault and implementing a number of new gasoline injection technologies, the electric car seems to have passed it by. Now, the company looks set to make amends with an electric city car of its own.

According to Audi board member Peter Schwartzenbauer, the Ingolstadt firm “will offer a pure electric car”.

Despite initial beliefs that the electric car would be based upon Audi’s Paris Show A1 Concept, Schwarzenbauer has since revealed that the electric car will be based on the production version of Volkswagen’s Up! minicar. There is no word yet as to whether the unnamed electric Audi will utilise lithium-ion technology, but it has been confirmed that the mystery battery pack will reside in the rear of the vehicle.

Given the potential surge of compact electric models from the likes of Mini and Citroen headed for the market, and the fairly established nature of the Up! architecture, Audi should be able to showcase this car in concept form by next year.