When is an Audi not an Audi? When it is an AUDI, in all caps. Marking the beginning of a new chapter for Audi’s premium New Energy Vehicle (NEV) brand AUDI: the first production model – the AUDI E5 Sportback – made its debut at the Volkswagen Group Media Night ahead of Auto Shanghai 2025.
“With our new China-only brand AUDI, we are continuing to push boundaries,” says Gernot Döllner, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. “The E5 Sportback offers the very best qualities of Audi, re-imagined for and tailored to customers in China.”
“The AUDI E5 Sportback is our first model based on the Advanced Digitised Platform, and it delivers on our brand promise: the best of both worlds. Audi’s DNA and engineering excellence is blended with China’s digital ecosystem and innovations, specifically tailored for our tech-savvy customers,” says Fermín Soneira, CEO of the Audi and SAIC Cooperation Project.
The four-door AUDI E5 Sportback is a bold, fully electric fastback with dynamic proportions (length: 4,881 millimetres, width 1,959 millimetres, height 1,478 millimetres). It offers a power output of up to 579 kilowatts and a maximum range of 770 kilometres. Four distinct powertrains offer rear-wheel or quattro drive for a dynamic driving experience, accelerating from 0 to 100 kilometres an hour in 3.4 seconds. Built on the new jointly developed Advanced Digitised Platform, the E5 offers next-generation connected vehicle functionality and over-the-air updates for all vehicle systems. Market introduction will begin in summer 2025.
Marks a new era
The new brand AUDI – spelled in capital letters, without the four rings – stands for a shared DNA but clear differentiation. It marks the beginning of a new era for the company in China, ensuring rapid response to the evolving demands of the Chinese market.
Rooted in its core brand ethos of “Vorsprung durch Technik,” Audi has tailored its products to the unique needs of Chinese consumers ever since it became the first global premium car manufacturer to enter the market 37 years ago. Building on its outstanding pedigree in China and over a century of engineering excellence, the company is now breaking new ground together with SAIC, establishing a new collaboration model for the co-development of the Advanced Digitised Platform and a new generation of state-of-the-art connected vehicles.
By leveraging both companies’ strengths across two time zones, a global team of Audi and SAIC engineers worked closely and simultaneously in Germany and China, managing to cut the development time of the brand’s first production model, the AUDI E5 Sportback, by 30 percent.
The result of this thoughtful collaboration between engineering and design teams in Ingolstadt, Germany, and Shanghai, China, the AUDI E5 Sportback offers luxury tailored to Chinese lifestyles and tastes, merging Audi’s superior driving performance, iconic design, and premium quality with an AI-powered connectivity experience.
The AUDI E5 Sportback offers a fresh interpretation of the Audi design language, re-imagining iconic elements of the brand’s heritage – athletic proportions, bold wheel arches, and a striking front and rear – with fluid elegance and unexpected nods to Chinese preferences. They include circular wheel arches over traditional quattro fenders and the reinterpretation of the familiar Singleframe with the new AUDI Light Frame.
True to Audi’s design heritage, aerodynamics shapes the AUDI E5 Sportback’s exterior. Elements like the floating front spoiler, a rear wing, and air curtains are elegantly integrated, optimising efficiency without compromising aesthetics.
Enhances vision
In addition to its distinctive lighting design, the AUDI E5 Sportback features Audi’s signature Matrix LED headlight technology. With precise beam control and intelligent zonal illumination, it enhances nighttime driving safety and comfort – maximising vision while preventing glare for other drivers.
Drivers can choose from a range of welcome animations, each crafted to suit different tastes. Their sequences pay homage to Audi’s heritage while taking inspiration from Shanghai’s dynamic skyline.
The cabin blends luxury with cutting-edge technology, offering intuitive touchpoints for effortless connectivity and thoughtful functionality. The curved AUDI panoramic display shared by driver and passenger is seamlessly integrated with the digital exterior mirrors, while the centre console offers open storage for two phones and 50-watt wireless charging with active cooling.
The AUDI E5 Sportback redefines in-car technology with AUDI OS, an intuitive, lightning-fast operating system that adapts seamlessly to each driver’s needs. Powered by the QUALCOMM Snapdragon 8295 automotive chipset with 5-nanometer precision and the ability to perform 30 billion operations per second, AUDI OS offers an intuitive experience.
A stunning, immersive 27-inch pillar-to-pillar 4K display visualises the metaphorical flow of information. Customisable screen layouts ensure important information is always prioritised in the top-level menu, facilitating swift navigation via touch gestures.
The touch-operated AUDI Control Bar on the centre console adapts contextually to any function or content, combining with the display to form a premium design piece.
The AUDI E5’s zonal electronic architecture enables next-generation connected vehicle functionality and over-the-air updates for all vehicle systems.
Tuned by Audi’s research and development centre in Germany, the AUDI E5 Sportback embodies Audi’s legendary driving dynamics, re-imagined for the electric era. Accelerating from 0 to 100 kilometres an hour in as little as 3.4 seconds, the E5 is available in four fully electric variants featuring either rear-wheel or quattro all-wheel drive at power outputs of 220, 300, 425, or 579 kilowatts.
Designed to balance exhilarating dynamics with everyday usability, a battery capacity of up to 100 kilowatt-hours enables a maximum driving range of 770 kilometres; thanks to ultra-fast 800-volt charging, the car can replenish 370 kilometres of range in just 10 minutes.
The LiDAR-based AUDI 360 Assisted Driving system supports a safe and relaxing driving experience that has been rigorously tested to meet safety standards. The vehicle is equipped with 29 perception hardware units, including a 100-line LiDAR with long-range detection capability, three long-range millimetre-wave radars, twelve ultrasonic sensors, eleven cameras, and several multi-modal sensing units.
Parking Assistance supports multiple types of parking spaces (vertical, diagonal, parallel parking). Cross-floor memory parking assists drivers in manoeuvring the vehicle to a memorised parking space and then parking the vehicle.
Following the E5, two more all-electric AUDI models will be launched in 2026 and 2027, as a continuation of Audi’s largest ever product initiative.
