The Audi 50 (known internally as Typ 86) is a small supermini car produced by German automaker Audi from 1974 to 1978, and sold only in Europe. Introduced two and three years after the French Renault 5 and the Italian Fiat 127 respectively, the Audi 50 and its VW Polo twin were seen at the time as Germany's first home-grown entrant in Europe's emerging class of "supermini" hatchbacks, supplanting a generation of small and often rear-engined economy cars. Project K50 was developed in a very short time of just 21 months.
Supervised by Audi boss and chief-engineer Ludwig Kraus, the Audi/NSU 50 was designed by Bertone's chief designer Marcello Gandini, while Audi's own Claus Luthe finalised the design of the car's modern, stylish unitary bodywork.
Rebadging as Volkswagen Polo
The car was also turned into a Volkswagen just six weeks later, rebadged as the Volkswagen Polo, and offered with more choice of engines and other options. The Volkswagen Polo was launched in the home market in September 1974 A planned facelift, which would have given the Audi 50 a look closer to that of the Audi 100 and Audi 80 was never implemented, because of a holding company board decision that the Audi brand should concentrate on larger, more expensive cars.
The Volkswagen Polo range continued to evolve, with the Volkswagen Derby notchback version, despite being developed by Audi at Ingolstadt, branded as a Volkswagen and launched in 1977. Subsequently, the Volkswagen Polo has evolved through numerous generations to the present day.
Successor
The Audi 50 had no replacement in the supermini class, until the launch of the significantly larger Audi A2 in November 1999, which was also discontinued in August 2005.
In August 2010, the car was spiritually succeeded by the Audi A1,