Audi plans Shanghai show debut for first car from its new China-only brand

Audi will debut its first China-only full-electric car at the Shanghai auto show on April 23, CEO Gernot Döllner said.

The EV will be sold under the new Audi brand that drops the automaker’s four-ring badge. The brand was previewed last year with the Audi E crossover concept.

Audi will be aimed at young, tech-savvy customers, Döllner told journalists at the brand’s annual press conference March 18.

The first model will go on sale a few months after the Shanghai reveal, with two more models arriving in the next three years, the automaker said.

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Audi did not say which segment the first model would compete in, but the concept shown in November was a low-slung Sportback crossover 4,870 mm long.

The new brand has been developed with Volkswagen Group China partner SAIC and aims to address Audi’s declining popularity in its largest market.

Last year, Audi sales in China fell 11 percent to 653,016 amid intense competition. Global brands selling in China have been hit hard by the reduced spending power of customers as well as ambitious local competitors’ heavy discounts.

The Audi brand reportedly borrows technology from SAIC and expands a relationship between the two companies that began in 2021. Audi also has a longer partnership with FAW Group in China.

SAIC builds the A7L Q6 Roadjet SUV combustion engine models for Audi, as well as the Q5 E-tron electric SUV. All three are China-market only.

Audi and other VW Group brands have lagged local competition in China as new-energy models including battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids captured almost 50 percent of the market in 2024.

”E-mobility is developing faster there than anywhere else in the world,’ Döllner said.

Audi will also begin sales of a “market-specific” A6 E-tron large sedan and Q6 E-tron large SUV in China this year. The models will be built by its joint venture with FAW and marks the first time the new Premium Platform Electric architecture has been localized in China.

Döllner said Audi’s experience working with its Chinese partners had transferred to faster development time in Europe.

“We started some projects here at Ingolstadt where we are really on a par with China. Just a few months of delay in between,” he said. “It’s our clear goal to become faster.”