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By now, American fans of the Audi A1 have given up all hope in seeing the premium hatchback in the US after Audi global sales head Peter Schwarzenbauer – try spelling that name – ruled out the A1’s chances of making it to America.

Now, it turns out that there may be a glimmer of hope, albeit a pretty small one. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Schwarzenbauer mentioned that the A1 will eventually be shipped out of Europe into the Chinese market soon with the US market being considered so long as small – and expensive – cars have a chance in the country. Translated, Americans will have to prove to these guys that they’re willing to spend the bucks for a premium hatchback, something that, as history suggests, Americans aren’t prone to doing.

But still, there’s hope, fellas. However long that will take will be entirely up to how the “pricey” compact car segment does in the US. We don’t even know if that’s going to happen in the next few years, but at least the door – no matter how small the crack is – has now been opened.

Audi opens door to possible A1 entry in the US in the future originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 26 August 2010 12:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

In their latest episode, the guys from Fifth Gear got behind the wheel of a smaller car; the new Audi A1. Now, being since these guys love their sports cars, how do you think the Audi stood up against its rivals? Well, Audi claims that the small and sporty A1, out to attack the reign of the Mini Cooper, is “the sportiest, most luxurious car in its class.” With that type of claim, anyone would be hard-pressed to find someone who would not want to test it. Take a look and see what Johnny Smith has to say about Audi’s city car.

The compact Audi A1 is being offered with a choice of four four cylinder engines, made up of two TDI units and two more small displacement TFSI gasoline burning power plants that produce 86 HP and 122 HP respectively. Every engine option is mated to a fuel saving seven speed S tronic gearbox and offers fuel economy between 43 MPG and 62 MPG depending on the engine. This setup allows the Audi to sprint from 0 to 60 MPH ranging from 9 to 12 seconds with a top speed going from 111 MPH to 124 MPH depending on your fuel of choice.

Video: Fifth Gear reviews the Audi A1 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 24 August 2010 11:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

Everyone expects the new Q1comact crossover SUV from Audi considering it’s been talked about for a couple of years now. What we didn’t expect was that the future model would, in fact, be the allroad version of the current A1 hatchback. The new A1 will drop the suffix “allroad” and simply adopt the Q1 name. The future Audi Q1 will be available with a 5-door body and in both front-wheel drive and all-wheel-drive versions. The debut is expected to be made in the first quarter of 2013.

The Audi Q1 will be defined by a sober, similar look to the one of the Q3, Q5, and Q7. It will be available with engines from a 160 hp 1.4 TSI to a 2.0 TDI 140 bhp. Diesel will also play a strong role in the Q1’s future with a 1.2 Liter TDI cranking out 80 HP and a 1.6 Liter motor with outputs ranging from 100 to 120 HP. Prices will be higher than 22,000 euros for the two-wheel drive and 27,000 euros for the AWD version.

Next Audi A1 allroad will in fact be the Q1 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 17:00 EST.

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ABT Sports has announced that they have already started to prepare a tuning package for the new Audi A1. The new ABT A1 will make its world debut on July 28th, 2010.

ABT announced that the new kit will include ABT POWER for the engines of the A1, new suspension components, dynamic aluminum wheels, and other sports accessories. Brochures, an online configurator, fact sheets with technical data, and much more will be revealed in August, the month of the ABT A1.

The tuner will offer three different designs for the fans to choose from. The fan’s choice will be the one that walks away with a victory and a plan of action.

It will be interesting to see the adjustments that ABT makes on the long awaited Audi A1. The A1 already has a fresh design that was inspired by airplanes with a choice of four engines ranging from 111 MPH to 124 MPH. A sleek looking car, no doubt, but it looks like it is going to get a lot sleeker after ABT has their way with it. We look forward to seeing the final project and will keep you posted as soon as the three choices are revealed!

Press release after the jump.

ABT prepares tuning package for Audi A1 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 8 July 2010 20:00 EST.

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Audi has a grudge against Mini. The German company isn’t going to let the BMW-run small car manufacturer hog the premium crossover segment with its new Countryman. Audi is fighting back with a vehicle of their own.

Audi is reportedly working on an Allroad version of the A1. The A1 three-door hatchback goes on sale this year with the five-door coming in 2011. The crossover variant could be here as early as 2013 and it could even get Audi’s all-wheel drive system. Granted, this is all just speculation.

Volkswagen is reportedly working on an all-wheel drive system for the CrossPolo and, considering the two little vehicles share platforms, it would be easy to assume that the A1 will get that system as well. Not to mention Audi’s love for the all-wheel drive Quattro system.

We shouldn’t expect to see the A1 Allroad anytime soon, but we can expect that both two-wheel and all-wheel drive versions will be made. We look forward to testing the base A1 and should have a review some time this year.

Audi considering A1 AllRoad originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 30 June 2010 23:00 EST.

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The legitimately chic and overwhelmingly pink Audi A1 Art Car was auctioned off at Elton John’s White Tie & Tiara Ball earlier this week for a staggering price of £350,000. That’s about $522,500, in case you need more time to compute the exchange rate.

The half-a-million price tag is significantly more expensive than the retail price of a standard A1, but seeing as this one was specially painted by renowned British artist Damien Hirst and that proceeds from the sale of the car would go to the Elton john AIDS Foundation, then the whopping bid price doesn’t sound as ridiculous as it could have been given other circumstances.

As one of the foremost supporters and one of the event’s longstanding partners, Audi personally donated the pink Audi A1 Art Car to the event as a special auction piece that both parties would hope could fetch somewhere in the bottom six digits. Turns out it sold far more than that.

Pink Audi A1 Art Car sells for $525,000 at Elton John's auction originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 28 June 2010 10:00 EST.

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Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara charity ball, which is scheduled to take place on June 24, will have a special guest invited in the form of a special edition Audi A1 that was donated by no less than Audi, one of the event’s principal supporters.

The charity ball is a yearly event organized by the British singing icon himself in an effort to help raise awareness and money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Together with his life partner, David Furnish, John has been one of the more proactive voices among all celebrities in the fight against AIDS.

For their part, Audi has been a long-standing partner of the charity ball and this year, they’re giving John a very unique Audi A1 Art Car - designed by British artist, Damien Hirst - that will be auctioned off during the event.

Naturally, both Elton John and David Furnish were elated by Audi’s generous gift. ""Audi has been a wonderful partner with us, and this year they have really produced something fantastic," Furnish said. "I am sure it will be a huge hit with our guests."

Audi UK Director Jeremy Hicks also had this to say: "We are enormously proud to support Sir Elton John’s remarkable fundraising ball for the eighth year in succession with the donation of a priceless and unrepeatable work of art for auction."

Audi A1 Art Car to be prominently featured at Elton John's Charity Ball originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 23 June 2010 08:00 EST.

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The Audi A1 e-tron unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show is just that; the proof that Audi can do it even though they won’t do it! Audi has announced there will be no electric version for the A1 hatchback.

Audi said the company will indeed focus on reducing fuel consumption and emission, but this will be done only by using a start & stop and braking energy recovery system. The announcement was made by Rupert Stadler himself.

The A1 range will be expanded in the future with three important additions. The first one will be the S1 set to be revealed in October at the Paris Motor Show. The second is the Sportback five-door and the third is a convertible.

The Audi A1 e-tron concept features an internal combustion engine that charges the batteries delivers a total of 102 hp in short bursts. This combination sprints the vehicle from 0 to 60 mph in just 10 seconds. Top speed is more than 80 mph. Continuous output is rated at 61 hp and 150 Nm of torque. The electric motor sends its power to the front wheels via a single-speed transmission that can be switched between "Drive," "Reverse," and "Neutral".

No electric version for the Audi A1 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 22 June 2010 21:00 EST.

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Mercifully, Audi’s "The Next Big Thing" mini-series has just released the final episode, much to our collective delight.

It’s not that we don’t like the whole campaign by Audi to promote the new A1. It’s just that the whole mini-series has been one farcical scene after another and before seeing this last episode, we still didn’t know what the whole thing was about. All the things we picked up from the first five episodes can be summarized into a couple of things: mixed-gender wrestling, resurrected diner waiters, a car chase with a Ford Crown Victoria, mysterious billboard messages, and hot make-out sessions. As far as the storyline goes, well, yeah, we we’re still trying to figure that one out.

Fortunately, Audi spared us from all the mental brain-wracking and released the sixth and final installment of the mini-series. We’d love to divulge you with spoilers, but we figured that no amount of explaining will do justice to what you can watch for yourself.

Video: The final episode of Audi's "The Next Big Thing" mini-series originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 10 June 2010 10:00 EST.

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