Apparently it’s becoming reality what manager magazin had already reported about a year ago:
The Volkswagen-Daughter Audi According to insiders, the cars developed together with the Chinese partner SAIC are brought onto the market without the logo with the four rings. The vehicles will be unveiled in November, several people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The abandonment of the well-known logo is part of the attempt to China developed electric cars from the existing program, which is in Germany had been developed.
The background is much more complex: the project was preceded by lengthy negotiations between Volkswagen and Audi and their Chinese partners SAIC and FAW, as manager magazin reported around twelve months ago
. What made things even more difficult was that the last two companies from the Far East mentioned didn’t get on particularly well with each other.
Audi declined to comment on the current information. SAIC said the jointly developed electric cars are “real Audis with authentic Audi DNA.” According to the plan, they will also bear the “Audi” logo.
Code name “Purple”
Audi and Saic agreed on a far-reaching collaboration in 2023. The Ingolstadt-based company expects the partnership to lead to faster development times: the first vehicles should come onto the market next year, if everything goes smoothly. Three models in the B and C segments, i.e. smaller vehicles, are initially planned. By 2030, there could be nine vehicles, according to a person familiar with the process.
The vehicles with the code name “Purple” are built on a jointly developed platform and use components and software from Chinese suppliers such as CATL or the automated driving system from the start-up Momenta.
This is a novelty: For four decades, the Volkswagen Group’s Chinese joint ventures have built and sold VWs, then Audis and Škodas, and to date a total of more than 50 million. The company and its subsidiary Audi have earned billions every year, including in license fees and parts sets delivered to China. And the constant was always: the technology comes from Germany. This is exactly what is changing with the new generation of Audi/SAIC cars that we are now talking about.
Audi and the core brand VW were initially caught off guard by the rapid rise of electromobility in China and now want to make up ground together with partners. Volkswagen has also agreed on a collaboration with the Chinese car manufacturer Xpeng, from which the first two mid-range vehicles will come in 2026.