AUDI started pre-sales of its new E5 Sportback in China. It is a station wagon developed with SAIC, equipped with assisted driving from Momenta and a massive 59-inch in-cabin LED screen.

The new EV has four variants with RWD and AWD options ranging from 235,000 to 319,900 yuan (32,800 – 44,500 USD). It is built on the Advanced Digitised Platform (ADP) with 800V architecture, jointly developed by SAIC. AUDI claims that a 10-minute charge will add 370 km of range.

AUDI, written in capital letters, is a new brand under Audi in China. It ditches the traditional four-ring logo to show domestic consumers it doesn’t rely on its legacy. The new AUDI brand is part of Volkswagen Group’s “in China, for China strategy.”

E5 Model	Drivetrain	Battery	Range	Motor	Price (yuan)
Pioneer	RWD	76 kWh	618 km	220 kW	235,900
Pioneer Plus	RWD	100 kWh	773 km	300 kW	269,900
Pioneer Quattro	AWD	83 kWh	623 km	386 kW	269,900
Flagship Quattro	AWD	100 kWh	647 km	579 kW	319,900

AUDI E5’s entry-level Pioneer trim is rear-wheel drive with a 76 kW LFP battery from the SAIC-CATL joint venture, good for 618 km CLTC range. The single motor provides 220 kW maximum power, and 0-100 km/h acceleration is 6.1 seconds. The price is 235,900 yuan (32,800 USD).

The top trim Flagship Quattro is all-wheel drive with dual motors. The front axle-mounted motor provides 200 kW while the rear axle-mounted motor provides 379 kW. The combined maximum output is 579 kW (776 hp), which is enough for 0-100km/h acceleration in 3.4 seconds. The NMC ternary battery from CATL has 100 kWh capacity and provides 647 km CLTC range.

AUDI E5 Sportback is a 5-door 5-seater with dimensions 4881/1960/1479 mm (length/width/height), and the wheelbase of 2950 mm. Most of the core parts are produced by SAIC. The motors are made by Huayu Automotive Electric Systems Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of SAIC Motor Group, and the SAIC-CATL joint venture makes the LFP battery packs. The car itself will be assembled by Sino-German joint venture SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Co. in Anting, Shanghai. E5 is currently a China-only car.

E5 Sportback is equipped with 27 sensors, including one lidar from Hesai, three millimetre-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars and 11 cameras, which send data into Momenta ADAS (advanced driver-assistance system). It is all processed by the Orin X chip from Nvidia.

Inside the car, you find a massive cabin-wide 59-inch LED screen with AUDI OS powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 cockpit chip. It features an AI assistant called Doubao from TikTok parent ByteDance, so it is expected to offer high-quality voice control and semantic understanding.

Editor’s comment

Unlike in Europe in the 90s, station wagons (or Kombi, as Germans say) were never popular in China, where MPVs and SUVs dominate. However, it has changed in recent years, as quite a few successful estates were launched in China. E5 Sportback will compete against Zeekr 007 GT (starts at 202,900 yuan), Nio ET5T, which starts at 298,000 yuan, or the recently unveiled Stelato S9T, which starts at 328,000 yuan.