Audi debuted a brand new China-only luxurious model this week, revealing an idea automotive as a part of the announcement. The brand new model’s identify? AUDI. The capital letters are essential to differentiate it from Audi. How have you learnt the automotive is an AUDI as a substitute of an Audi? It says AUDI on the entrance finish rather than the Audi 4 rings. The idea automotive is known as the AUDI E Idea, and whereas the AUDI doesn’t actually appear like an Audi total, the AUDI does have some Audi design cues that tie it into Audi whereas preserving it distinctly AUDI.
A enjoyable reality I didn’t know is that Audi was the primary “premium automotive model” to enter the Chinese language market again in 1988, and Audi’s expertise available in the market is why it determined to create AUDI, which is being developed as a three way partnership with Shanghai-based SAIC Motor. Three manufacturing fashions shall be coming subsequent yr on a brand new Superior Digitized Platform structure that was labored on by SAIC and Audi groups in Germany and China. Right here’s what Audi needed to say concerning the firm within the AUDI press launch:
AUDI is formed 100-percent by the Audi DNA and embodies “Vorsprung durch Technik” within the period of electrical clever linked automobiles. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner: “The automotive business is present process the biggest transformation in its historical past. With our partnerships in China, we’re taking part in a decisive function on this transformation.” On the similar time, Chinese language premium clients are completely different from their worldwide counterparts and have completely different expectations: they’re youthful than in the remainder of the world. They’re extra tech-savvy. They count on main connectivity in addition to automated driving and, extra importantly, an thrilling, unmistakable expertise in an inside that’s each acquainted and stunning.
The wants and desires of those premium buyer teams are the benchmark and specification sheet for the joint improvement staff from Audi and SAIC. This staff has been arrange with Fermín Soneira from Audi because the CEO.
Soneira, previously the long-standing Head of Product Line for Electrical Fashions at Audi, steers the partnership with 25 years of intensive expertise inside the Volkswagen Group. “Our cooperation displays the spirit of ‘one of the best of each worlds’ and has been set as much as collectively set up improvement, buying, manufacturing, and gross sales,” mentioned Fermín Soneira. “With each events contributing their core strengths, I firmly consider Audi will proceed to form the way forward for premium electrical mobility by integrating the innovation power of the market.”
The brand new joint program gives one of the best of two worlds in automotive improvement. It combines the strengths of Audi with SAIC’s innovation velocity. Audi brings know-how in premium merchandise and design, total automobile improvement, and engineering to the desk. SAIC gives quick improvements, a well-established know-how ecosystem, and deep perception into the native market’s calls for. The results of this mixture: the Superior Digitized Platform.
Audi CEO Gernot Döllner stresses: “The joint platform would be the foundation for a brand new era of state-of-the-art clever linked automobiles unique to China. The upcoming fashions are geared toward a promising and concurrently demanding new buyer phase. The cooperation will additional develop the Audi portfolio of battery electrical automobiles (BEV) in China and speed up the corporate’s transformation on this planet’s largest market.” The primary three BEV fashions shall be within the mid-size and full-size segments (B and C. The collaboration mannequin reduces time-to-market by greater than 30%, with the primary mannequin to start gross sales in 2025.
So there you go. AUDI is completely different than Audi, however AUDI remains to be Audi at its core, though AUDI can be SAIC. Makes whole sense. As for the E Idea? I feel it appears fairly nice. AUDI says its design was tailor-made for Chinese language clients, and the E takes the type of a wagon-y Sportback with a really sloping roofline that also appears to supply a ton of inside house. At 191.7 inches lengthy the E Idea is 5 inches shorter than an Audi RS6, however each wagons are the identical top of 57.5 inches tall, and the AUDI’s wheelbase is an inch longer.
Its fenders are rounded and actually bulging, and total the AUDI’s easy surfacing is a departure from present Audis. The entrance and rear ends have wraparound black bars that comprise all the primary lights and sensors (plus the AUDI logos), with the middle panels getting additional triangular lights which can be very Audi. This therapy is “radically new, iconic, and characterful,” in response to AUDI. One other cool component is the middle CHMSL performing as a mount for the dramatic floating spoiler.
AUDI says lots of the individuals who labored on the E Idea beforehand labored at Audi’s Beijing design studio, so it has been designed to satisfy the particular wants of Chinese language clients. Says AUDI, meaning the staff “prioritized the mix of the consolation the model is understood for and seamless integration of know-how. Customers thus expertise the AUDI E idea a classy, snug, and linked oasis match for the city life-style in China’s megacities.”
There’s a curved 4K touchscreen that runs throughout all the width of the dashboard, with screens for the rear-view cameras added to the ends. The door panels have unbelievable “lamella” tiered wooden sections which can be illuminated, together with tons of microfiber upholstery and different wooden bits all through the cabin. The ambient lighting typically appears actually incredible, and there are cool blocky design parts to items just like the arm rests.
A brand new AUDI OS infotainment system reveals “all essential data” while not having to dive into menus, and it gives a strong app retailer. There’s additionally a brand new AI avatar known as the AUDI Assistant, positioned as a contact management within the middle of the sprint, that “conveys emotional suggestions when interacting,” and the AUDI Management contact bar on the middle console can management something on the primary screens and “adapts contextually to any perform or content material customers are interacting with.”
AUDI says the E Idea has an electrical motor at every axle that give it Audi Quattro all-wheel drive and outputs of 764 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque, ok for a 0-to-62-mph time of three.6 seconds. Its 100-kWh battery pack provides it a variety of 435 miles on the Chinese language CLTC cycle, and the 800-volt structure means it will probably acquire 230 miles of vary in 10 minutes of charging. AUDI says it “drives like an actual Audi when it comes to consolation in addition to dynamics,” however that it additionally has China-specific driver-assistance options.
The upcoming AUDIs are absolutely not going to return to the US, however possibly a few of the know-how options may. If you happen to’re visiting China over the following few years, and also you’re uncertain in case you’re an AUDI or an Audi, simply keep in mind: AUDIs say AUDI whereas Audis have 4 rings, though some Audis additionally say Audi in locations.
