The new brand will not use Audi's signature four-ring logo, but will instead use Audi's English name “AUDI” and will also launch a model to rival the Nio ET7, according to local media.
Volkswagen's premium car brand Audi will unveil a new brand and concept car in partnership with SAIC on November 7, with the first model to rival Nio's (NYSE: NIO) ET5 touring shooting brake, according to a report in local media 21jingji today.
The new brand will not use Audi's signature four-ring logo, but will instead use Audi's English name “AUDI,” according to the report.
The upcoming concept car will be similar in design to the production version of the new brand's first car, a luxury B-segment shooting brake model that is scheduled to go into production next August at a plant in Anting, Shanghai, the report said.
The model's key competitor is the Nio ET5 Touring, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
In terms of price range, it will also be similar to the Nio ET5 Touring, at the RMB 300,000 yuan ($41,900) level, with the final price to be adjusted based on actual conditions, the person said.
Nio launched the ET5 Touring in China on June 15, 2023, and its deliveries began the day after the launch. The model has the same starting price of RMB 298,000 as the regular ET5 sedan.
In the first nine months of this year, the ET5 Touring delivered 36,641 vehicles, contributing 24.54 percent of Nio's deliveries in the same period, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.
The new Audi model will be built exclusively for the Chinese market, taking into account the needs and market changes here and adding many new features during development, 21jingji quoted the person familiar with the matter as saying.
The model will offer an 800 V fast charging system and can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in less than four seconds, according to the report.
It will be equipped with Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta's ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) with mainstream smart driving capabilities, and the mid and high-trim versions will have city NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) capabilities, according to the report.
Fermín Soneira, the CEO of the partnership program between Audi and SAIC, had said that the project will no longer target only Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and that Nio and Li Auto are also being studied.
After the first model, the project will also launch two new all-electric models, one of which will be a mid-to-large size sedan, targeting the Nio ET7, and the other will be a mid-to-large SUV (sport utility vehicle), according to the report.
On May 20 this year, SAIC announced that it had signed a cooperation agreement with Audi to jointly develop a number of high-end smart electric vehicles for the joint venture SAIC Audi and to jointly develop the Advanced Digitized Platform.
The two sides were combining resources to jointly develop a range of EV models, with the first product expected to go on sale in 2025, SAIC said in a statement in May.
Yesterday, another local media outlet, the Economic Daily, reported that the project's first model will be unveiled in Shanghai on November 7, the first in the Purple series.
The model will look similar to the Nio ET5 Touring, carry the “AUDI” logo, and feature a purple color, according to the report.
At the heart of the Purple series is the platform and electrical architecture of SAIC's IM Motors, and it will utilize SAIC's supply chain, according to the report.
($1 = RMB 7.1606)
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