Audi has already confirmed that its long-awaited MINI rival, the A1, will find its way into showrooms by the end of 2009 / early 2011 (depending on the market). The German firm gave us a first glimpse of its new city car at last year’s Tokyo Auto Show with the 3door A1 Metroproject quattro concept but now Auto Cars 2011’s has learned that Audi will take the wraps off a 5-door version of the A1 at the Paris Auto Show in October. Our inside sources report that the Paris Show concept car will be closer to the production version than the A1 shown in The new Audi A1 will be developed on the VW group's new MQB modular architecture for small and mid-sized cars with transverse engines. Expect to see front-wheel and all-wheel drive versions as well as a top-of-the-line S1 model equipped with one of the latest TSI engines from the VW Group developing over 200HP.
Rendering: Auto Cars 2011
