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John Mahoney19 Jun 2018
NEWS

Leaked: Audi's sportier 2019 A1 Sportback

Second-generation German supermini gets high-tech interior and looks that will help it steal sales from MINI

Audi's all-new, sportier and more upmarket A1 Sportback has been leaked online ahead of its official unveiling this week.

Posting the images late last night, Belgian website Autotijd has given us our first look at the second-generation A1 that's claimed to draw from Audi's illustrious rallying past to help inject some visual excitement.

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Most obvious are the horizontal slats at the leading edge of the bonnet that pay tribute to the original Sport Quattro, while the bronze alloy wheel option mimics Audi race car rims.

Featuring a more angular design with a 'floating roof' and aggressive front and rear bumper designs, the new A1 will also be available in more youthful colours, like canary yellow, while the sporty Y-spoke alloy wheels suggest the S line will look more like a hot hatch than a boring supermini.

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For 2019, Audi will only offer the new A1 with five doors, after the German car-maker decided to drop the old three-door hatch.

Beneath the skin Audi's smallest model will sit on the Volkswagen Group's latest MQB AO platform, which already underpins the latest Volkswagen Polo.

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Thanks to its new underpinnings, the latest Audi supermini is expected to be bigger all-round and offer more interior space for passengers.

The new architecture should also bring weight-savings over the current car and, thanks to its greater torsional rigidity, should improve the A1's refinement and dynamics.

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Like before, most A1s will come with front-wheel drive but all-wheel drive will be available on the more powerful models, like the sportiest S1.

Under the bonnet, the small Audi will also share the Polo’s turbocharged range of engines, with the line-up kicking off with a small 1.0-litre three-cylinder and stretching to a 1.5-litre four-cylinder until the 230kW 2.0-litre four-cylinder Audi S1 arrives.

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What could be missing in the new line-up is a diesel, following a significant drop-off in European sales for small diesel-powered cars in the wake of VW's Dieselgate saga.

All engines are expected to come with the option of a six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

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Audi had already teased some of the new tech the A1 will come with, like the MMI Touch screen that will benefit from features like gesture control and natural-speak voice activation lifted from the A8 limousine and the new 2019 Audi A6.

The small A1 will also get the firm's latest virtual cockpit digital instrument panel and new embedded 4G LTE connectivity.

From our first glance of the baby Audi's interior, it's clear the German car-maker plans to lead the class for interior quality, offering the type of finish and material quality usually reserved for more expensive luxury cars.

On sale in Europe later this year, the A1 is expected to arrive in Australia during the first half of 2019.

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