Audi, Renault and VW have all launched retro secret weapons in the EV arms race

Is it boom time for retromodernist design? Two famous German cars with divergent histories – the Volkswagen Polo and Audi A2 – are back, both reborn as electric cars. They join those reinvented Renaults, the Renault 5 hatch and Renault 4 SUV, Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz and the two standard bearers of reviving past icons with a contemporary twist, the MINI and Fiat 500.

Aside from the big, overpriced VW, all those cars have been successes. Not that Audi talks of joining their ranks. “Audi is not a brand that does retro in any way,” the A2’s exterior designer, Jakob Hirzel, told me. “We are aware of our history, and we have a really nice history collection. But it has never been important for us to look into the past.”   

That’s fair enough from a brand with the mission statement ‘Vorsprung durch technik’ (‘progress through technology’). And the original A2 was a flop. It was too small, too costly with its advanced aluminium structure and too far removed from Audi’s sporty image. But I loved its clever engineering, spaciousness and economy. I reckon if Audi hadn’t lost its nerve, the A2 would have evolved into the car unveiled this week: an affordable EV that’s the most efficient Audi ever.

The transformation of the Polo into the ID. Polo is an even bigger step: a stellar icon has gone electric. EV sales initially boomed around Covid, giving makers false confidence that long-standing combustion nameplates wouldn’t need replacing. Brands are now hastily trying to extend those cars’ lifecycles but if the ID. Polo follows in the R5’s footsteps – a car closing on 150,000 units – maybe we won’t need another clean-sheet Polo without the ID. prefix. 

Hirzel told me his A2 was originally considered as yet another hatchback crossover, but in a competition the streamlined silhouette won the day. Good. The R4 hasn’t yet matched its hatchback sibling’s success, because small SUV customers are more wedded to combustion, the open-top Plein Sud version is only just arriving and because its nostalgic identity isn’t as obvious as the 5’s.

Ultimately R4 and A2 sales might not catch fire. But retromodernism at affordable prices is a powerful combination in the mass market. And with European brands keen to fight off Chinese entrants with no heritage, expect this trend to only intensify.

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