AUDI E5 Sportback launch pre-sales in China at 32,800 USD with 773 km range and massive 59″ LED screen

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 starts pre-sale in 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.”

The 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 in 6.1 seconds. The price is 235,900 yuan (32,800 USD).

The top trim Flagship Quattro is AWD with dual motors. The front axle-mounted motor provides 200 kW while the rear axle-mounted motor offers 379 kW. The combined maximum output is 579 kW 9776 (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, 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 cabin, 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, 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 seems it is changing recently, as quite a few estates were launched in China and are selling quite well. 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.