In this series of imagined cars, it seems natural that the more grounded a car is in reality then the more imaginable the car may be. With Audi dropping its new A2 e-tron model harkening the early 2000s A2 with an electric drivetrain, thoughts of just what Audi Sport GmbH might do with the car were immediately obvious.
Worth noting, I wasn’t alone in this line of thinking. Since the A2 dropped on the 7th, we’ve seen any number of imagined renderings of such a car. In this case, the idea was to keep it as grounded in reality as possible – not immediately shifting the grille to something more conventional as AI image generation models wish to do, pulling real world cues from the latest RS cars such as the RS 5 and also finding precedent for what could be done to power the car.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to imagine very hard when trying to conceptualize a more performance-oriented drivetrain. Back in 2023, Volkswagen demonstrated exactly that with the ID.X Performance concept. Based on the same MEB architecture that underpins the A2 e-tron (and also Q4 e-tron), this experimental ID.7 used a permanently excited synchronous motor at the rear and an asynchronous motor at the front to produce 411 kW (558 PS / 550 hp) through all-wheel drive. Volkswagen also widened its track by 80 mm, lowered it 60 mm, substantially stiffened the suspension and fitted 265-section racing tires. A Vehicle Dynamics Manager controlled drive torque and the rear differential lock, while the battery was configured for high continuous output.
Volkswagen never put the ID.X Performance into production, likely due to the market’s pull back from EVs that doused ideas of finding buyers who’d readily embrace such a car. In the end, the car demonstrated what engineers could extract from MEB even if product planners and finance staff cut it short because the risk of lackluster sales was too high.
And while the ID.X wasn’t particularly captivating a design nor did it have any real heritage on which to stake its claim, that’s not so with with either the A2 model family or the icon status of an Audi wearing an RS badge paired with the number 2.
So, Audi Sport GmbH and the customers that buy their cars, may we suggest an RS 2 e-tron?
550 HP IN AN A2?
Consider where 550 hp would place our imaginary RS 2 within Audi’s current and recent RS hierarchy. The outgoing RS 6 Avant performance produced 630 PS (621 hp) from its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. The new plug-in-hybrid RS 5 produces 639 PS (630 hp), while the RS e-tron GT performance sits considerably higher at up to 925 PS (912 hp).
In that company, 550 hp almost sounds restrained. Put it into something the size of an A2 and the perspective shifts.
We aren’t going to invent performance figures for a car that doesn’t exist, but an electric quattro hatchback with roughly 550 hp should have little trouble delivering acceleration worthy of an RS badge. Making it a convincing RS would require more: wider track, larger brakes, substantial suspension changes, aggressive torque distribution and the thermal management necessary to use that performance repeatedly.
Efficiency would suffer. Range would suffer. Then again, that’s not really the point.
ABOUT THAT RS 2 NAME
Technically, what to name the car is obvious. An RS version of the A2 becomes the RS 2. Historically, it’s a bit more complicated.
The original Audi RS2 Avant was the Ur-RS, jointly developed with Porsche and the car that established the formula eventually followed by the RS 4, RS 6 and the rest of Audi Sport’s RS range. Reusing that name for an electric hatchback would inevitably irritate some traditionalists, and that’s understandable… especially in a world where Ford Mustang Mach-E is an SUV and the Porsche Taycan Turbo has no actual turbocharger.
We’d argue there’s more authenticity in the case of an RS 2 e-tron. RS applies. So does the number 2. There’s logic in the formula and it’s not simply some act of convenience or desperation by a marketing staff member who should know better.
For now, we’re using RS 2. If Audi ever seriously resurrected the badge, we’d hope the resulting car were special enough to justify it. Perhaps there’s even another rendering exercise there involving a little Porsche influence or even a longer wagon body style, but we’ll save that idea for another day because if a car like this were to exist, it would first need to be based on the A2 as it sits and use parts and drivetrain components already developed.
AUDI’S IONIQ 5 N?
The obvious contemporary comparison for this imagined RS 2 e-tron is the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. Hyundai took a practical EV platform and deliberately sacrificed some efficiency in pursuit of performance and driver involvement, producing 601 hp normally and as much as 641 hp with optional “boost” deployed.
That puts our hypothetical 550-hp Audi slightly below the Hyundai on outright power, but an A2 would also occupy a substantially more compact package. The Ioniq 5 N may look like a hot hatch, but it’s a considerably larger car than the A2 e-tron. At 185.6 inches long and 76.4 inches wide, the Hyundai is nearly 16 inches longer and six inches wider than the 170.2-inch-long, 70.4-inch-wide Audi. Its 118.1-inch wheelbase is also roughly nine inches longer than the A2’s 109.0 inches. In other words, an RS 2 wouldn’t simply be Audi’s answer to the Ioniq 5 N with a different badge; it would package the same basic high-performance EV idea into a substantially smaller footprint – think EV version of the RS 3 Sportback.
For a better sense of scale, the A2 e-tron is remarkably close in footprint to Audi’s own RS 3 Sportback. At 170.2 inches long and 70.4 inches wide, the A2 is actually about 2.2 inches shorter and 2.5 inches narrower than the RS 3, although its EV packaging gives it a wheelbase roughly 5.4 inches longer and a roofline about 4.6 inches taller. The comparison makes our hypothetical RS 2 easier to visualize: essentially an RS 3-sized electric hot hatch with roughly 550 hp and quattro all-wheel drive, albeit with considerably more battery-related weight to manage.
Weight could narrow that distinction with the Hyundai, though perhaps not eliminate it. The Ioniq 5 N weighs 4,861 pounds, while the 240-kW production A2 e-tron is listed at roughly 4,420 pounds in European specification. Our hypothetical RS 2 would inevitably gain weight from its second motor, larger wheels and brakes, additional cooling and other performance hardware, so it’s impossible to predict where it would ultimately land. Even if the finished car approached the Hyundai in mass, however, squeezing roughly 550 hp and electric quattro into a body nearly 16 inches shorter could give the RS 2 a distinctly different character—less electric super-crossover and more genuinely compact electric hot hatch.
So, while the Ioniq 5 N may be quite a bit larger and 400 lbs. heavier, its real value is its demonstration that an EV doesn’t have to be defined solely by range and efficiency. It can be engineered around entertainment.
There’s no avoiding the difficult EV market in 2026, and a high-performance electric hatchback would hardly be an obvious volume product. Even so, the success of the broader Ioniq 5 makes us wishful that Audi might take a similar risk with the A2. That this rendering also seriously gives off rally car vibes also embraces one of our favorite eras in Audi competition history.
IN THE DETAILS
Nowadays renderings can get a bum wrap. Anyone with a prompt and an AI tool can make something with relative ease, so the trick is getting the details right… something those tools get wrong or make up more often than not. That in mind, it’s worth calling out the specific design elements where we made a point to include them.
First up are RS design cues. Specifically, this car’s got the latest wheel design from the RS 5 Avant that adds to the realism. The graphic dashes on the A2’s grille are swapped here for a more RS-like cross-hatching. Black optics also match the car’s color way.
One element that works best from our perspective are the badges. While we kept it simply “RS” at the front, we went with the tri-colore Audi Sport design seen on the RS 6 GT and RS 3 competition limited. However, in this case we swapped the colors out from red, tan and brown to Audi F1’s carbon, titanium and progressive red. Bringing a small slice of Audi F1 into the car while modernizing the Audi Sport rhombus badge for RS cars just seemed to make sense. And if anyone misses the all red configuration… well… why not offer both?
Then there’s that last detail at the rear. Did you spot it? A large outline “e-tron” logo in original quattro script has been added to the rear partial window. Remember how the ur quattro had its “quattro” rear defrost element as a trick decorative detail? The C3 100 and 200 Avant models went one further by placing it more vertically on the rear glass that curved down below that car’s rear spoiler. This is a nod to that, but represented in a new way that leans in toward’s this car’s battery electric drivetrain.
BUILD AN RS Q4 WHILE YOU’RE AT IT
There might also be a way to make the engineering investment easier to justify. Audi already uses MEB for the Q4 e-tron. If Audi Sport developed a substantially higher-output dual-motor drivetrain, associated cooling and control systems for an RS 2 e-tron, much of that investment could potentially be shared with an RS Q4 e-tron.
The two wouldn’t need to be identical in character. An RS Q4 could provide the higher-volume performance crossover application, while the smaller RS 2 could be the more focused enthusiast model harking rally. One drivetrain program supporting two products makes considerably more sense than developing expensive high-performance EV hardware exclusively for a niche hot hatch.
Would either sell in huge numbers in today’s EV market? Probably not. But that’s also why Volkswagen’s ID.X Performance makes this thought experiment intriguing. Much of the conceptual groundwork has already been demonstrated and such a drivetrain would be compatible with cars across the Volkswagen Group already on the MEB platform matrix.
Audi has the A2. The Group has shown that MEB can support roughly 550 hp. Audi Sport already understands high-performance electric quattro drivetrains. Porsche even has a new E-Shift functionality in the Taycan that would be most excellent in this RS 2 e-tron. And the same investment could potentially produce any number of high-performance VW Group models alongside it.
This Imagined RS 2 simply assembles the pieces in a compelling way. It wouldn’t be the most efficient A2. It might, however, be the one we’d most want to drive.
PHOTO GALLERY
