Audi has officially launched production of the new E5 Sportback, the first model from its newly established China-specific AUDI brand, created in partnership with SAIC. The electric fastback rolled off the line August 18 at a new dedicated facility in Anting, Shanghai, with pre-sales opening the same day. Deliveries in China are slated to begin in September.
AUDI MEANS TO LISTEN. THIS IS ALL CAPS. WHY ARE THEY SHOUTING?
Most have noticed that this new Chinese sub-brand of Audi known as AUDI, besides being confusingly spelled exactly the same way, is in all caps. That’s only made more confusing given the fact that Audi is a longtime pusher of lowercase letters – “quattro”, “e-tron”… you get the idea… at least if you follow Audi, because style guides of other major car magazines don’t bother with any of that to-capitalize-or-not-to-capitalize brand signaling Audi’s intellectual property experts are pushing.
So, it’s confusing, but it’s not without an interesting historical tie. When the post-war Audi brand was first launched back with the 60 model, “60” was just a power designation much like “1.8T” or the more recently confusing and seemingly meaningless “55”. In the 60’s case, it referred to horsepower rather than displacement ergo “1.8” and the like, so Audi was the model name. It was known as “the Audi” and you have to wonder if the name being the central part of this is the plan in China.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT THE CHINESE AUDI?
Well, we’re not getting it so there’s that. It’s also electric-only and if you’re in North America then you may already predisposed to not wanting to hear about it. Still, whether you’re into electromobility or not, hear me out just the same. Audi pairing up with SAIC to make the AUDI signals the brand’s fundamental understanding of market conditions and displays an adaptation to that.
In China’s case, Chinese consumers are ready and able to dive into electromobility. Chinese manufacturers have seized on this opportunity and have largely begun honing a genre of domestic Chinese EV products that would seem quirky to the west, though those qualities are also insulating enough to see Chinese business going en masse to those domestically tailored cars… at the cost of BIG sales for even EVs when they are developed in the west.
Clearly Audi is hoping the Chinese will embrace the AUDI more than they embraced Audi e-trons. Whether that strategy proves successful remains to be seen, though the move to create a China-specific business of Chinese-tailored cars even with their own distinct design and naming convention is relevant here.
NORTH AMERICA IS NOT EUROPE, THAT’S WHY!
This next part has nothing to do with China and everything to do with the differences between Europe and America. While the EU still has an EV mandate in place, North America (and the U.S.A. in particular) don’t seem as on board with a full shutting down of internal combustion engine (ICE) technology. The feeling is so strong here that, even though EV sales are continuing to grow, there’s more and more bad will being directed by more traditional car American car consumers towards brands bringing favorite ICE models to a close.
In the meantime, Audi had already been looking at a potential U.S. factory even before the recent tariffs were put into place. Whether that factory manifests itself like San José Chiapa Mexico that builds the world production of the Q5 or pivots to something more market specific as we see with China and the AUDI we do not know, but the AUDI effort sure makes a compelling proof of concept.
MORE ON THE AUDI E5 SPORTBACK
The E5 Sportback sits on the new Advanced Digitized Platform (ADP) and offers a wide range of configurations, including rear-drive and quattro all-wheel drive versions. Output ranges up to 579 kW, with Audi quoting 0–100 km/h times as quick as 3.4 seconds and a maximum driving range of 770 km (WLTP). Full over-the-air updates and a connected digital ecosystem aim to position the car as a tech-forward flagship for the Chinese market.
Production at Anting begins with roughly 700 employees and features a high degree of automation and digitalized quality control. Two more models from this China-only Audi brand will follow within two years.