Tag Archives: China

NEW CARS

New Audi E5 Sportback Only for China

Well, this is it. Audi has finally built a car it really wants you to know about — and it’s not for you. Unless, of course, you happen to live in China, where the all-new Audi E5 Sportback has just thundered off the production line in Anting like a freshly charged iPhone on wheels.

Yes, August 18 was the birthday of Audi’s first series-production model developed specifically for China, in partnership with local heavyweight SAIC. The message is clear: Germany makes the suits, China adds the smart tech, and together they’re gunning for the future of electric fastbacks.

What is it?

On paper, the E5 Sportback is a bit of a monster. A fully electric, four-door fastback, it churns out up to 579 kW (that’s nearly 800 horsepower in old money), will slap you to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds, and still promises a maximum range of 770 kilometres. So yes, it’s both a drag-strip hooligan and a long-distance Zen master. Choose from four different powertrains: rear-wheel drive for the purists, quattro for the snowbound or the terminally enthusiastic.

The Platform Play

Underneath it all sits Audi’s shiny new Advanced Digitized Platform (ADP). Think of it as the silicon spine of the car: over-the-air updates, next-gen connectivity, and enough digital wizardry to make even Tesla owners raise an eyebrow. It’s not just a car; it’s a rolling app store with quattro muscles.

Built the Chinese Way

Production is happening in a dedicated new facility at the SAIC Volkswagen site in Shanghai. About 700 people (and a terrifying army of robots) are building these things, overseen by machine learning systems that check quality in real time. It’s basically Skynet with a torque wrench.

And this isn’t a one-off. The E5 Sportback is the opening act of a trilogy, with two more Audi models due in the next two years.

Audi’s Big Pitch

Fermín Soneira, the man in charge of this German-Chinese mashup, says every Audi “embodies the best of both worlds.” Translation: You get German design, quality and driving dynamics, fused with China’s bleeding-edge digital ecosystem. In short, it’s an Audi that speaks fluent Mandarin — and WeChat.

Should You Want One?

Well, unless you live in China, no. But you should still pay attention, because this isn’t just another electric Audi. This is Audi rethinking its future market, building a car around Chinese customers and their tech-obsessed lifestyles. It’s as much a cultural shift as an engineering one.

And with nearly 800 horsepower, 770 km of range, and the kind of acceleration that makes your eyeballs stick to the back of your skull, the E5 Sportback might just be the most exciting Audi you can’t buy.

Source: Audi

News

Polestar Gives China the Cold Shoulder — From the Middle of Its Own Factory Floor

Imagine throwing a party, stocking the fridge with champagne, baking a cake, and… no one shows up. That’s roughly the situation Polestar has just endured in China — except instead of cake, it was electric cars.

The Chinese–Swedish EV brand, co-owned by Volvo and Geely, has decided to pull out of its main market. Yes, the very same market where it builds its cars. The numbers tell the grim tale: in the first half of 2025, Polestar sold just 69 cars in China. That’s not a typo. Sixty-nine. In a country with 1.4 billion people, that’s statistically closer to zero than it is to “doing well.”

April and May were particularly tragic — with zero sales. None. Nada. Polestar might as well have tried selling snow to penguins. Meanwhile, the rest of the world seemed to quite like what they were offering: 30,000 Polestars sold globally in the same period, up 51 percent from last year.

In China, the brand’s physical presence has withered to just one lonely showroom in Shanghai. The online store — once touted as the main sales channel — has also been shut. And attempts to hitch a ride with local retail partners? Missed. Completely.

Currently, Polestar sells three EVs, with three more promised over the next few years. The Polestar 3, which currently rolls out of plants in both China and the US, will soon get a Slovakian production line. Whether the Chinese factories will stay open now that their home market has shown all the enthusiasm of a cat for bath time remains to be seen.

For now, Polestar’s breakup with China is official. They came, they built, they… didn’t sell anything. Sometimes the writing on the wall is in big, neon-lit Chinese characters — and you just have to read it.

Source: Polestar

News

Chery Smashes Export Record with 669,300 Cars Shipped in a Month

Chery is on a roll. The Chinese carmaker exported a staggering 669,300 vehicles in July alone, more than any other domestic manufacturer, cementing its position as China’s largest automotive exporter. The milestone is part of an even bigger story: Chery has now shipped five million vehicles beyond its home borders, the first Chinese brand ever to do so.

Do the maths, and it’s an eye-opening pace — one Chery-badged model leaves China for overseas markets every 27 seconds. The results speak for themselves: 17 million customers worldwide and annual revenues last year worth around €51.3 billion.

The brand’s footprint is already vast, with exports to more than 100 countries and regions, but Europe is clearly becoming a priority. Having entered the continent through Spain in February 2024, Chery has since added seven more countries to its network. Germany is next, and the company plans to debut there with the Omoda 5 crossover and the Jaecoo 7 SUV — both aimed squarely at the mainstream market.

It’s an aggressive expansion that mirrors the broader push by Chinese brands to go global, but Chery’s sheer volume and established presence in emerging markets give it a head start. Whether that translates into sustained success in Europe’s competitive, brand-conscious market remains to be seen — but with numbers like these, Chery has earned a spot on the watch list.

Source: Chery