This year was one of the most important for Audi and there is no doubt about it. After all, the brand has presented its first fully electric car, the e-tron SUV, which has been presented to public earlier this fall in San Francisco. However, while the brand is (on the outside) doing well in the field of electric cars, it certainly having problems when it comes to hybrid cars.

According to Autocar, last in the line of ‘punches’ Audi received – after failing to continue the production of Q7 e-tron – is ending of production of A3 Sportback e-tron, presented back in 2014. The reason for this is the introduction of WLTP emissions regulations, that has become mandatory at the beginning of September.

Gone in Europe, remains on sale in USA

While Audi could offer new plugin power plants of A3, the company stated that this is not a viable decision, considering the fact, that there have only been few thousand cars sold so far in Europe. On top of that, Audi is planning to introduce next generation of A3 in about a year and a half, so instead of working on the old car, they will rather focus on the new one. Meanwhile, the car is going to remain on sale in USA, where WLTP rules do not apply.

Dropping the A3 e-tron from its catalogue, however, does not mean, that Audi is dropping or postponing its plans on the field of electric cars. Instead, there are plans on presenting 20 e-tron cars – majority of which are going to be hybrid versions of existing cars – with 12 fully electric cars following by 2025.