Code Designations: Unknown at this time.
Underpinning Architecture: Advanced Digitized Platform (ADP)
Market Specification: China
Production Span: 2025 – Current
Lineage: First of Its Kind
NEED TO KNOW
There’s a new branch on the Audi brand family tree, a “new chapter” Audi refers to as a “premium New Energy Vehicle brand AUDI” and its first offering the AUDI E5 Sportback. The car made its initial debut at Volkswagen Group Media Night ahead of the Auto Shanghai motor show.
“With our new China-only brand AUDI, we are continuing to push boundaries,” comments Gernot Döllner, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. “The E5 Sportback offers the very best qualities of Audi, reimagined for and tailored to customers in China.”
“The AUDI E5 Sportback is our first model based on the Advanced Digitized Platform, and it delivers on our brand promise: the best of both worlds. Audi’s DNA and engineering excellence is blended with China’s digital ecosystem and innovations, specifically tailored for our tech-savvy customers,” says Fermín Soneira, CEO of the Audi and SAIC Cooperation Project.
Audi appears to have tapped the same basic form to the A3 Sportback – more truncated Avant than the coupe-like roofline of the A7. It’s also larger and very different in execution than the A3 Sportback.
| Model | Length (mm) | Width (mm) | Height (mm) |
| Audi A3 Sportback (8Y) | 4,492 | 1,816 | 1,430 |
| Audi A4 Sedan (B9) | 4,763 | 1,847 | 1,427 |
| Audi Q6 e-tron | 4,771 | 1,965 | 1,648 |
| AUDI E5 Sportback | 4,881 | 1,959 | 1,478 |
| Audi Q8 e-tron | 4,915 | 1,937 | 1,666 |
The AUDI E5 Sportback is a fully electric fastback with dynamic proportions (length: 4,881 millimeters, width 1,959 millimeters, height 1,478 millimeters). To put that in perspective, it’s roughly the footprint as the Q8 e-tron (not as long, but wider), while being slightly taller than an Audi A4.
The car offers 579 kilowatts
It offers a power output of up to 579 kilowatts (about 776 hp) and a range of 770 kilometers (478 miles). The car will be available with four different powertrains, including rear-wheel drive and quattro. 0-62 mph comes on in just 3.4 seconds.
The car will be built on a new platform known as the Advanced Digitized Platform co-developed between Audi and Chinese manufacturer SAIC. Doing so opens up new functionality including next-generation connected vehicle functionality and over-the-air updates for all vehicles systems.
Deliveries will begin in China in the summer of 2025.
Four distinct powertrains offer rear-wheel or quattro drive for a dynamic driving experience, accelerating from 0 to 100 kilometers an hour in 3.4 seconds. Built on the new jointly developed Advanced Digitized Platform, the E5 offers next-generation connected vehicle functionality and over-the-air updates for all vehicle systems. Market introduction will begin in summer 2025.
QUESTION WHAT IS AUDI?
That’s AUDI and not Audi, which might be confusing given the style of this website uses all-caps in sub-headlines. “AUDI” spelled in all capital letters and seen without the mark of the four rings represents a shared DNA with Audi (with the rings), but is also intended to denote a clear differentiation. In particular, it’s geared of the Chinese market and is theoretically better positioned to react more quickly to customer tastes there. Think of it like Toyota’s approach to the USA by launching Lexus and you wouldn’t be far off… except Toyota’s branding already uses all capital letters… so there… it could in fact be more confusing.
Seriously though, tailoring cars to the Chinese market is undoubtedly a shrews move. Market tastes are very quickly deviating from those of western consumers in North America and Europe, leaving western car brands out in the cold while witnessing plummeting sales as a result. By working with a local such as SAIC and not rigidly tying this China-market-specific product to the Audi brand as is seen int eh A5L Sportback and the like, Audi places itself in a stronger position to evolve more acutely with the Chinese market.
Of course, Audi has built Chinese market models for years and was a leader from the beginning. Following his success in rally, former Audi Sport boss Roland Gumpert was reassigned following the brand’s departure from the WRC. Gumpert and a team from Audi helped establish it as a force, entering the Chinese market 37 years ago. In the time since then, Audi realized a great degree of growth and sales success and building any number of models unique to the market in Chinese domestic factories. More recently, China’s further evolution has seen sales hampered, and so the pivot to the Advanced Digitized Platform and cooperation with SAIC is a concerted effort to maintain that position of leadership.
Working together with SAIC, engineers from both companies were able to cut the development time of this first model by 30 percent. The two teams combined to create a product that merges Audi’s know-how with superior driving performance and design with SAIC’s electromobility advancements and AI-powered connectivity for occupants.
AUDI E5 SPORTBACK DESIGN INDIVIDUALITY
No rings. No singleframe. You can’t miss the obvious differences. Even still, it’s worth taking a closer look in order to appreciate this fresh interpretation of the Audi design language. Though details are different, the athletic proportions, pronounced arches are familiar… however the rounded arches over Audi’s box flare inspired quattro fenders you see on the RS e-tron GT are more nods to Chinese preferences (and also, we’d argue… cars like the RS 4 Avant B5, RS 6 C5 or Audi TT).
At the front, the Audi Singleframe shifts to what the Audi Design Team refers to as the AUDI Light Frame. Even with AUDI logo instead of the four rings, the larger horizontal segment of the AUDI Light Frame almost seems to harken 80s era designs like the B2-era Audi models much loved in Europe for the ur quattro and perhaps even nostalgic in China as that chassis continued to sell for years as the Volkswagen Santana.
It’s not just a horizontal grille though, and that’ probably worth pointing out. In this more modern design, the AUDI Light Frame is actually a black loop that circles at both elf front and rear of the car, centralizing functional areas such as lights, sensors, air curtains, radar and spoilers into one cohesive feature.
The rest of the exterior design is more minimalist. There’s been so much talk about the return of minimalism in the context of Audi’s own world design direction that you have to wonder how much more we may see of the simplicity if not details like those arches or the AUDI light frame.
DESIGN EVOLUTION LIGHTING
Audi is consistently a leader in lighting, but the development of the AUDI design language offered the opportunity of a fresh take. In this case, lights remain hidden within the black loops when inactive, Upon activation, more than 1,000 individual light units integrate triangular light nodes in order to comprise the AUDI Light Frame that also integrates Audi’s latest Matrix LED tech.
As you may expect, this also gave Audi’s lighting designers and engineers the chance to build in animations tailored to suit various tastes.
DESIGN REIMAGINED INSIDE
The theme inside is clear horizontal layers, integrating rich materials with comfort features such ambient lighting, speakers in the seats and even hidden intelligent air vents. There’s also a fragrance diffuser with various scents, which may be less of a curiosity and more welcome for owners driving AUDI E5 Sportbacks through China’s megacities.
A curved panoramic display is shared by the driver and the front passenger, while also being seamlessly integrated with output from the digital camera exterior mirrors. In the center console, there’s room for two phones, 50w of charging and even active cooling.
Materials were also a major focus, including lamella-shaped wood accents emphasized with indirect light that is also used to accentuate tactile surfaces. A large panoramic roof features automatic dimming.
DESIGN INTERACTION DIGITAL INTERFACE
While user interface has become critically important in all markets, this is especially so in China and so a new and “lighting fast” operating system AUDI OS has been integrated here to adapt to driver needs.
The system is powered by the QUALCOMM Snapdragon 8295 automotive chipset with 5-nanometer precision and the ability to perform 30 billion operations per second. This is supported via the immersive 27-inch pillar-to-pillar 4K display where information is visualized for the occupants. Customizable screen layouts prioritize key information in the top-level menu that is navigable via touch gestures. Every touch surface – whether physical or digital – has been designed to reinforce clarity and ease.
AUDI OS also offers an ecosystem for entertainment and apps, accessed via an app store via facial recognition and integrated into the China Smartphone digital world assuring seamless connectivity and synchronization.
There’s also AUDI Assistant, an AI-powered touch and voice enabled avatar meant to humanize digital interaction. Here, AUDI aims to “embody the brand’s spirit: both precise and playful, balancing cutting-edge innovation with charisma and warmth.”
Chinese consumers will be able to calibrate the assistant’s demeanor with the swipe of a finger. In-car interaction is reimagined as a fluid, human-centered dialogue between driver and car. Dynamic computing power enables natural language processing, personal memory, behavior select (Vohico by ByteDance), haptic feedback, and more.
Okay, so the west might not be there yet, but if you’re playing with accents in an effort to make Siri sound more like the person you want to be chatting with, you’re probably already down the road of seeking such a digital automotive companion.
And if that’s all a bit much for you, there’s also a haptic option. A touch-operated AUDI Control Bar on the center console adapts contextually to any function or content, combining with the display to form a premium design piece.
BASIS ADVANCED DIGITIZED PLATFORM (ADP)
At the heart of the AUDI E5 Sportback is the jointly developed Advanced Digitized Platform (ADP), a zonal electronic architecture enabling next-generation connected vehicle functionality. Designed to rapidly integrated China’s leading new energy vehicle (NEV) supply chain, ADP will form the basis for a new generation of China only connected EVs in the mid to full-size segments.
At the same time, the E5 Sportback is also a German car, meaning the best chassis development and driving dynamics. Beyond its to-be-expected rapid EV acceleration (0-62 mph in 3.4 seconds), the four powertrain variants offer outputs of 220, 300, 425 or 579 kilowatts.
Other familiar Audi hardware can be found here, advancements such as all-wheel steering and adaptive air suspension with Continuous Damping Control (CDC) that helps refine the ride and manage the added weight inherent in EVs.
Finally, it’s especially notable when an EV has a 478 mile (770 km) maximum range. Advancements with battery tech here allow for 800-volt charging where the car can recharge 370 km in just ten minutes.
ADVANCED DRIVING ASSISTANCE
A new LiDAR-based AUDI 360 Assisted Driving system combines 29 perception hardware minutes including a 100-line long range LiDAR unit, three long-range millimeter-wave radars, twelve ultrasonic sensors, eleven cameras and several multi-modal sensing units to provide even further enhanced driver assistance. The system was designed for complex urban driving conditions Chinese drivers are likely to encounter, making it adept at predicting tricycles and delivery riders that are commonplace in locales such as Beijing.
Bypassing obstacles, identifying traffic lights, initiating driver-trigger
Adaptive Cruise Assist enables nationwide highway and urban driving assistance. The vehicle can assist customers to bypass obstacles, identify traffic lights, initiate driver-triggered lane changes, and more.
Active Safety monitors dangerous and emergency situations for the customer and intervenes to prevent accidents as far as possible. The function has been enhanced to handle China-specific scenarios such as two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and children, as well as nighttime driving.
Parking Assistance supports multiple types of parking spaces (vertical, diagonal, parallel parking). Additionally, cross-floor memory parking assists drivers in maneuvering the vehicle to a memorized parking space and then parking the vehicle, particularly in specific settings such as residential garages, office buildings, and shopping mall parking lots.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR AUDI
Audi plans to follow the AUDI E5 with two more all-electric AUDI models set to be launched in 2026 and 2027.
PHOTO GALLERY
