2027 Audi A3 previewed: Family car goes fully electric

On sale 2027 |  Price from £40,000 (est)

If buying a new family car was like buying concert tickets, then the Audi A3 would be the VIP package with lounge access – you can relish in the comfort of plush seats and your very own space to enjoy the music, but only if you can afford a premium price.

The current Audi A3 is among the best family cars around, impressing with sharp handling and a solid balance of comfort and fun.

However, for its next generation, the A3 will adopt fully electric power, both to help cut emissions, and to allow its maker to comply with increasingly tough legislation around the percentage of electric cars it must sell. When it goes on sale in 2027, the new A3 will become Audi’s entry-level electric model, sitting underneath the current Q4 e-tron (pictured below).

While full details around the next A3’s battery, motors and power are still to be revealed, we know that it will sit on the same underpinnings as today’s Q4 e-tron and Q6 e-tron SUVs. Audi engineers are targeting an official range of up to 435 miles – that’ll get you from London to Paris and halfway back again without stopping, although of course the car's performance in real-world conditons will vary.

You should be able to charge the A3 quickly, too, thanks to the ability to accept charge at speeds of up to 200kW, with a 10-80% charge expected to take as little as 20 minutes if you use the fastest public charging points. This is an improvement on the 170kW rate that the Q6 e-tron can accept.

It’s expected that the new A3 will follow in its predecessor’s footsteps and spawn sporty variations equivalent to the current S3 and RS3 models, which will offer more performance and four-wheel drive. The latter is expected to race from 0-62mph in less than 3.8 sec.

Being a fully electric car, we can expect the new Audi A3 to look substantially different to today’s car, with a shorter bonnet, shorter overhangs and a longer body. Audi previously showcased what a next-generation A3-sized electric car might look like with its AI:ME concept, revealed in 2019. That car was designed for manoeuvring smoothly around tight city environments, and in production form would have counted the Cupra Born and Volkswagen ID 3 among its key rivals.

Its new shape will make the next A3 slightly bigger than today’s car, which should result in more room for passengers to stretch out inside. Buyers will be able to choose between either a five-door hatchback or a four-door saloon, with the latter counting the BMW i4 and Tesla Model 3 among its rivals.

The interior of the next A3 will mix technology from the next-generation Audi A5 and current A6 e-tron (pictured above) with the naturally-sourced soft natural materials used inside the AI:ME concept. The new A5, A6 and the Q6 e-tron are available with three digital screens, the first being an 11.9in digital instrument display behind the steering wheel, with a 14.5in touchscreen infotainment system alongside it. A 10.9in infotainment touchscreen is situated in front of the passenger, allowing them to control some of the car’s functions.

Interestingly, the next A3 may not take the A3 name at all. That’s because, if it follows Audi’s current naming strategy, which reserves even numbers for EVs and odd ones for combustion engines, the car could instead take the ‘A2 E-tron’ badge. However, given that the A3 name is known among car buyers, Audi may instead decide to skip giving the new car a different badge.

When the new A3 does arrive in dealerships, we expect prices to start from around £40,000, which is more expensive than current electric car rivals including the Cupra Born and MG4. 

In terms of more premium rivals to the new A3, an electric version of the rival Mercedes A-Class is expected to go on sale as early as 2026, with an electric BMW 1 Series (pictured above) following in 2027.

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