His new plan is to sell more electric cars to the rich in China, and for that he abandons his four rings

Goodbye to the four rings in the grille of the Audi. The German firm dispenses with its historical logo to be able to sell more electric cars in China. Instead, electric Audis on the Chinese market will be sold under the brand “AUDI”. Yes, in capital letters and without the four rings.

This third quarter the profits of the Audi Group (Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati) They plummeted 91% due to the slowdown in China and the drop in the sale of electric cars. In fact, Audi sold fewer than 10,000 electric cars in China in the first six months of 2024. The solution? Sell ​​Chinese electric cars, with Audi design, but without the four rings in China.

From manufacturing cars for Audi to developing its new electric models

Audi has traditionally been one of the best-selling prestige brands in China. It was, for example, the brand of predilection for high officials and officials in China. That was the case until the arrival of the electric car, where local brands are dominating at all costs, like BYD, which sells 100,000 cars a week. Audi needs help in China.

So, just like Volkswagen with XPeng, Audi has partnered with SAIC (MG). The German manufacturer and SAIC have jointly developed, purchased, produced and distributed the AUDI brand.

The subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group has contributed its technical knowledge in terms of products and engineering, while SAIC has made its technological ecosystem available, without forgetting its experience in the national market. The young brand is managed from Shanghai by the Asturian Fermín Soneirapreviously responsible for the electric range from segments A to C at Audi in Germany.

At a time when Chinese manufacturers are striving to attract Europeans to their electric cars, Audi has unveiled its product plan for the Asian giant. The first model will go on sale in mid-2025. The first of them will be a derivative of the AUDI E concept presented these days.

This sedan has a 100 kWh battery with a range of 700 km, according to the very optimistic Chinese CLTC cycle. The model is powered by two electric motors with a combined power of 570 kW (775 HP) and 800 Nm of torque, located on the front and rear axles, thus forming all-wheel drive. In addition to a sports sedan, the young brand will launch two other models in the next three years, including an SUV.

To this end, Audi and SAIC have developed a common architecture and an advanced digital platform. “The common platform will serve as the basis for a new generation of cutting-edge intelligent and connected vehicles, exclusively for China,” explains Gernot Döllner, CEO of Audi.

In practice, AUDI will sell electric cars developed by SAIC under its own brand, style and specifications, but it will have little from Audi. Thus, the fact of dispensing with the four rings is a move that seeks to differentiate the new brand from the traditional one. Although for us Audi and AUDI are the same, this is not the case for a country that uses ideograms in its writing. But that movement can be read internally as a way of saying to yourself, “this is not a real Audi.”

Beyond the anecdote and revealing of how difficult it is for a foreign brand to sell electric cars in China, it is a falling symbol. The brand at the forefront of technology is forced to ask for help from a Chinese manufacturer – state-owned, to boot – to hope to have a relevant role in China.

In case anyone still had doubts about the China’s industrial dominance over the electric carOr, it is no longer just Volkswagen or Audi that turn to Chinese brands to develop their cars. Mazda, for example, has done the same with the Mazda EZ-6, which is none other than a Deepal SL03 from its local partner Changan redesigned with the fluid and muscular Mazda style. And more recently, Renault confessed that its future electric Twingo is being developed in China.

The Asian giant has gone from manufacturing cars for Western brands to developing cars for them. China’s old dream of stopping manufacturing the iPhone to create the new iPhone is also being fulfilled in the automobile industry.

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