Audi Teams Up With Chinese Auto Giant SAIC For EV Platform

It recently came out that Audi would be looking for a Chinese partner for an EV platform for its top models. This is because its own efforts within the Artemis project and Volkswagen’s Trinity project have so far yielded too little, but Audi does want to speed up the release of electric flagships. It seems that it has now found a partner in SAIC to make this happen. The Chinese medium Jiemian says it has confirmation that Audi and SAIC are ‘deepening strategic cooperation’. This should indeed lead to Audis on a platform from SAIC or a base that Audi itself has also contributed to. It is not yet clear which of the two it will be.

The collaboration does not come out of the blue. Volkswagen and SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) have been working together for years and the joint venture also builds Audis for the Chinese market. MQB models like the Audi A7L and the Q6, but also the electric Q5 e-tron on an MEB basis. SAIC-Volkswagen may now be commissioned to develop a platform for Audi, but it is also possible that Audi will turn to SAIC Motor for an existing basis. SAIC itself has a fairly fresh modular EV base that should be good for a range of 1,000 km and more than 800 hp.

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