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.”