Audi launches a new brand in China without the four-ring logo

Audi is making a big change to its branding for the Chinese market with a new logo that lacks the automaker’s famous four-ring emblem. Today in Shanghai, the company showed off the new “AUDI” logo — yes, it’s just Audi in all caps — on the front of a new E concept electric Sportback that notably lacks its broadly used “E-Tron” branding.

In a press release, Audi’s CEO Gernot Döllner said it’s hoping to tap into China’s “more tech-savvy” customers who “expect leading connectivity as well as automated driving.” Reuters reported in August that Audi was planning a rebrand for China, where the automaker sold less than 10,000 vehicles in the country in the first half of 2024.

Audi says the AUDI E concept represents a preview of three upcoming mid- and full-sized models it will introduce starting in mid-2025. Audi formed a partnership with Chinese state-owned SAIC Motors and placed its former electric models head, Fermín Soneira, as the new team's CEO. A new Advanced Digitized Platform was developed through the partnership, featuring an 800-volt architecture that underpins the E concept.

Soneir, who has been with Audi parent company Volkswagen for 25 years, says the partnership is set up to “jointly organize development, purchasing, production, and sales.”

VW is struggling in China as home-grown automakers like BYD have won over consumers with cheaper, more tech-advanced cars. Human rights groups have also called out VW that its supply chain may have been linked to forced labor of the Uygur Muslim population in Xinjiang.