A1 with added practicality, without losing its fun factor

Audi’s stable has been further extended with the new A1 Sportback, in front of a crowd of media today. The A1 Sportback is the latest addition to the compact hatchback family. The smallest offering in Audi’s lineup was pronounced a global success, with 118,000 units sold worldwide since its debut. In Singapore, the A1 made up half of the 3-door hatchback segment, affirming its leading position in our local market.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Reinhold Carl, Managing Director of Audi Singapore shared his vision for the market. Despite facing economic downturns in the western continents, Audi (globally) has achieved strong growth, notably a 10.6% increase in customer deliveries. In addition, the firm has managed to claim top spot in terms of profitability, with an 11.4% return on sales. The achievement is contributed by the significant growth in China, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region, where sales figures went up by 40.5% and 35.3% respectively.

To re-affirm its leading status, Audi Singapore has introduced the A1 Sportback, a five-door variant of the initial A1. In five-door guise, the A1’s exterior dimensions have largely remained identical to the three-door variant. To allow for more interior room, the Sportback is 6mm taller and 6mm wider than the hatchback. Through clever engineering, Audi has managed to put in 11mm more headroom and 13mm more shoulder room in the Sportback.

In the aesthetics department, the Sportback retains the well-received styling cues found on the hatch, such as the coupe wing mirrors, upward-lifting lines at the flanks of the body, as well as the wrap-around front bonnet and rear boot.

Like its other stablemates, the Audi has offered no less than six different engine variants for the A1, including both petrol and diesel propelled. New to the A1 is the 1.4 TFSI powerplant featuring cylinder on demand. The engine is equipped with a enhanced version of the valvelift system, which deactivates the second and third cylinder, leaving the first and fourth to propel the car during coasting under low and medium load conditions. The 140hp powerplant will join the lineup at a later date.

Two petrol-powered variants have been chosen for the initial launch on our local shores, namely the 1.4 TFSI S tronic delivering 122hp, and a slightly up-tuned version that pumps out 185hp. Prices start from S$153,850 (incl. COE).