Tomorrow is May 20th, on this special day that heralds "I love you", Audi will officially announce a new "love affair": using SAIC Zhiji's platform, and jointly develop three pure electric vehicles with SAIC.
This cooperation means that "SAIC Audi" will become "SAIC Audi", and the meaning is completely different.
The three newly developed pure electric vehicles are, to put it bluntly, "Audi's face and wisdom". It's a pity that at the moment, these two brothers, whether they are face or inside, are almost so meaningful.
Audi's new energy is having a hard time, and although Zhiji is happy every day, its sales have not improved much. In the past, they talked about strong alliances, and the two of them clearly wanted to huddle together to keep warm. The problem is that if you want to huddle together to keep warm, you must first warm up yourself, otherwise, two cold people will still be cold together.
"Car talk" learned that SAIC Audi's next-generation models will be based on SAIC's "Nebula" platform. At present, SAIC's Zhiji and other brands can develop new models on the Nebula platform.
Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume previously revealed that the model jointly developed by Audi and SAIC will be launched in 2026.
After the success of SAIC Audi in the Chinese market, it is likely that it will also be exported overseas, which means that China will become a global R&D and manufacturing center for Audi's electric vehicles.
In the field of fuel vehicles, there is no one who does not know the name of BBA. As one of the top three luxury brands, Audi is not to mention its competitiveness and influence.
It's just that under the switch of the new energy era, Audi is like a tiger in the forest banished to the plains, full of question marks and a little powerless.
In the domestic market, Audi's electric vehicle products on sale include Q4 e-tron, e-tron, Q2L e-tron, Q5 e-tron and other models, with prices ranging from 20 to 500,000 yuan. Not to mention that it is not as good as BMW, not even Mercedes-Benz, not to mention that the two of them are not as good as they are in the field of new energy.
This situation is in response to what Haier Zhang Ruimin said, there is no successful enterprise, only the enterprise of the times. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, which are dominant in the era of fuel vehicles, are struggling in the era of new energy vehicles. This guy didn't lose to himself, nor to his competitors, but to the times.
Even Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Bloom admitted that Audi's electrification process is no match for Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and it is also lagging behind in its own product lineage.
The reason why Audi is still looking for a Chinese partner means that there is currently no suitable platform for Audi within the Volkswagen Group.
Backed by the Volkswagen Group, Audi can use a lot of platforms, but none of them are really their own and really easy to use.
It's not that Audi itself is not without the ability to develop a pure electric platform, but it can't afford to spend time, so this platform must be ready to use.
In China, in terms of distance and proximity, Audi will first find FAW or SAIC. FAW Group does not have a suitable electric vehicle platform, and in this context, it can only choose SAIC.
If Audi wants to make the new model as soon as possible, at this time, Zhiji may not be the best choice for Audi, but it may be the most suitable choice.
SAIC Audi has been established for more than three years, but it has never been able to open up the situation in terms of sales, so that SAIC Audi has not released official sales figures for a long time.
It can be said that the performance of SAIC Audi is very unsatisfactory for Audi, so the next development in the field of new energy is very important.
SAIC Nebula has mass-produced a number of models such as Feifan R7, MG MULAN, Zhiji LS7, and Zhiji LS6, and no car has yet truly gained a foothold in the market segment.
SAIC Audi wants to get out of the quagmire through the new energy field, so as to choose SAIC Nebula, which is actually a bit difficult.
A few more words
Do consumers choose SAIC Audi's pure electric vehicles, or choose the same platform, or even lower price, and are in the same market segment?
For users, they want to spend money to buy Audi, but they didn't expect it to be SAIC Zhiji's platform and three-electric system.