Audi E Concept launches new China-only sub brand that’s, confusingly, called AUDI

Audi and the Chinese car manufacturer behind MG’s rebirth, SAIC, have revealed more details on their new joint venture, which was announced in May this year. The project will, curiously, be called AUDI, and the brand will design and build models specifically for the Chinese market, with their design and technological direction previewed by a new concept called the AUDI E. 

What distinguishes models from the new AUDI brand is a written-out logo rather than the usual badge; traditional Audi models will retain the familiar four rings. The new logo will appear on vehicles that use a brand-new EV technology developed between the partners called the Advanced Digitised Platform. 

This new architecture will combine Audi’s technological excellence with SAIC’s manufacturing agility, and is claimed to “reduce the time-to-market by 30 per cent”, according to a statement from the German brand. This platform is used by the new AUDI E concept, which previews a production car due as early as next year. 

The AUDI E also reveals the new design direction that will be applied to three medium and large-segment models from the new brand. While the concept is aimed at new customers in the Chinese market, there are still lots of design cues that reference the Audi brand’s heritage. 

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This includes the square nose graphic and twin lighting elements that take inspiration from the original Audi Quattro, as do the pumped up wheelarches and ‘sunken’ rear windscreen. 

The concept also previews some of the technical elements that could appear in the future production models, packing a 100kWh battery and twin electric motors that give it a total output of 764bhp and a 0-62mph time of just 3.7 seconds. The new platform also supports a hi-tech 800V electrical architecture, which is capable of super-fast charging speeds that can add as much as 229 miles of range in just 10 minutes. 

The concept’s interior technology also reveals more of what to expect on the forthcoming production models, starting with the full-width display and additional side-camera screens dominating the dash. However, look beyond the digital displays and you’ll see yet more subtle nods to classic Audi interior design, such as the layered panels on the doors that reference the stitched stripes on an eighties Quattro. 

Although the new AUDI brand is unlikely to expand beyond the Chinese market, the features on this concept could preview similar design characteristics for Audi’s future global models.

Would you like to see the AUDI E Concept make production? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section...