It is known that in order to better satisfy customer demands in the Chinese market, the Volkswagen concern has joined forces with the XPeng startup, but it intends to promote the Audi brand in China with the participation of the SAIC auto concern. The partners’ first joint brainchild was presented this week – it was the E5 Sportback electric car.
Image source: Audi
The automaker’s press release emphasizes in every way that AUDI is a new trademark, its spelling implies the use of capital letters and thus distinguishes it from the classic Audi, whose products will be oriented towards the global market, not the Chinese one. AUDI electric vehicles for the Chinese market will abandon the traditional logo in the form of four rings in favor of the four indicated letters. For the sake of unification, we will use the classic spelling “Audi”. The partners mention that the cooperation of German and Chinese engineers allowed to reduce the time spent on developing the first serial model of the brand by 30%.
The influence of the Chinese design school, which is now being formed by people from Western studios and auto concerns, is felt in the appearance of this sports wagon. The sloping silhouette is intended to improve the aerodynamics of the car, and the representatives of the “new” brand propose to consider the closed contours formed at the front and rear by lighting elements and air intakes as signature design elements. The central insert on the front bumper, due to the uselessness of a false radiator grille, is equipped with more than a thousand LED elements that create dynamic animation with different patterns. Such “welcome color music” is in demand on the Chinese market.
Image source: Audi
Directly the front lighting equipment is made using matrix technology and is configured to automatically switch from low beam to high beam and not to blind drivers, both in oncoming and in passing cars. In the interior, the atmospheric lighting is made as unobtrusive as possible, the air vents are hidden from the eyes of people in the cabin, the trim uses mainly natural and pleasant to the touch materials. The ventilation system provides the ability to use three different fragrances. The two-tone paintwork of the body is designed to give the sporty silhouette even more style and dynamics. The panoramic roof can be darkened due to the presence of electrochromic glass.
As has been the tradition for the last few years, the console between the front seats has two wireless charging pads for smartphones, providing up to 50 watts of power. The expansive 27-inch display across the entire width of the dashboard supports 4K resolution and is equipped with a touch interface with gesture recognition, and the on-board system also understands voice commands in Chinese and can take into account the habits of a particular driver. The multimedia system is based on the 5-nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 processor.
Image source: Audi
The front panel also has a separate curved touch panel at the top, which can display different interface elements depending on the situation and settings. In fact, it can display icons for calling the most frequently used functions. Face recognition allows users of the system in China to access popular services and applications on the local market without additional authentication. Touch displays have tactile feedback, making it easier to manipulate the interface.
Of course, the car is equipped with a large number of sensors, the total number of which reaches 29 pieces, including a long-range lidar and 11 cameras. In China, in combination with specialized software and processors, such a set allows the driver to be insured not only in the city, but also on the highway. The capabilities for automatic parking have been expanded, but in light of new trends in Chinese legislation, they will have to be used with caution.
Image source: Audi
The Audi E5 Sportback has dimensions of 4881 × 1959 × 1478 mm and will be offered in four versions in terms of power: 220, 300, 425 and 579 kW. In the latter case, we are talking about an all-wheel drive version with a power of 787 hp, it will be able to accelerate to 100 km / h in 3.4 seconds. The car will also be offered in a rear-wheel drive version.
Support for 800-volt architecture provides a range of 370 km in 10 minutes at special high-power charging stations. The capacity of the traction battery in the senior version is limited to 100 kWh, but this is enough to provide a range of 770 km on a conditional cycle. Adaptive air suspension will add comfort while driving, and rear-wheel steering will improve maneuverability. In general, all this is now offered by Chinese automakers, the only question is how much Audi will value the four corresponding letters on the body of the new electric car. In 2026 and 2027, two more models of electric cars will be released under this brand in China.