Will SAIC only sell AUDI in the future? Audi’s wealthy civil war has finally subsided

Abstract:

The quarrel between North and South Audi, Audi finally figured it out. Two days ago, financial magazines broke the latest news about the split of Audi in China:

In the future, SAIC Audi will only operate the AUDI brand, and the four-ring brand will be completely transferred to FAW Audi.

In fact, it is not surprising that the company should be separated. After all, SAIC Audi has never started doing business.

According to last year’s data, FAW Audi sold 570,088 units throughout the year, while SAIC Audi sold only 47,258 units.

Although SAIC Audi grew by 23% year-on-year in 2025,

Looking at the entire Audi China market, it fell by 5.6% year-on-year.

In other words, SAIC Audi failed to fully expand Audi's market, and even grabbed part of FAW Audi's cake.

Faced with such a situation, Audi China may decide not to engage in internal consumption from the beginning of this year. SAIC Audi’s A7L, which sold for 262,800 yuan at the beginning of the year, was purely scrapped to clear out its inventory.

Financial magazines also said that SAIC Audi’s production of fuel-powered models has reached zero in July, and it looks like it will be cut off.

However, Audi China has not yet made an official announcement because the joint venture between SAIC and FAW has not yet been reached.

SAIC Audi’s production lines, previously given user rights, handovers between dealers, etc., all have to be discussed slowly with FAW Audi, so no exact time can be given.

Em...how to say?

I think it’s good that Audi China is divided like this. The conflict can be alleviated to some extent, after all, Audi really can't stand it anymore.

In fact

Since the establishment of SAIC Audi, the conflicts between the two companies have never stopped.

Unlike North and South Volkswagen, Audi has only had one joint venture partner in China since the establishment of FAW Audi in 1988.

Except for the most classic A6L, A4L and Q5L are Audi’s leading models in China. With its low-key, business-like impression, Audi China's sales have been rising, and it has been the sales champion of China's luxury brands for 30 years.

But in 2015, after the Mercedes-Benz GLK was replaced by the GLC, Audi experienced its first sales decline under the attack of Mercedes-Benz and BMW. (a slight decrease of 1.4% year-on-year)

In order to cope with competitive pressure, Audi's idea is to copy the "North and South Volkswagen" approach and find SAIC to expand new markets.

It just so happens that SAIC has not been very successful in its attempts to rise higher. Huiong and Phaeton have both failed, and Cadillac, with annual sales of about 100,000, is really not good enough.

The two sides hit it off immediately, and in November 2016, SAIC and Audi signed a cooperation memorandum in Wolfsburg, Germany, to form SAIC Audi with each holding 50% of the shares.

So, if things go well, it is estimated that SAIC Audi will be established in 2017 and will release a new car launch plan.

But the cake is so big, and FAW Audi exploded instantly.

And the most surprising thing is that before Ren FAW has spoken, the first ones to go up are the dealers.

On November 15, 2016, FAW Audi held a regular dealer annual meeting, and the dealers went on strike for a time.

On November 21, 30 dealer groups including Guanghui, Zhongsheng, and New Elements, which accounted for 60% of Audi China's share, threatened Audi by refusing to deliver cars. After the establishment of SAIC Audi, they had to protect the interests of FAW Audi dealers.

Audi agreed at the time and stated that it would negotiate with SAIC and Audi dealers to discuss the details again before March 2017, and would invite FAW to come over if necessary.

However, the dealers felt that Audi's position was not clear enough, so they took the initiative. In February 2017, all FAW Audi dealers formed the Audi Dealers Association and jointly issued the "Sanya Statement", with three demands directly typed in gg:

1. Before Audi China reaches 1 million annual sales, the SAIC Audi project must be suspended. (Block out the dealers owned by SAIC)

2. FAW Audi should bear the losses caused by the increased competitive pressure caused by too many dealers at that time, and propose solutions. (Strive for more rebates)

3. Renew the 5-year dealer agreement with FAW (stable long-term meal ticket).

Seeing how hard the dealers were pushing, the German Audi headquarters gave in. In the end, it could only reach a three-party agreement. SAIC Audi’s new car sales should not be earlier than January 2022. In the future, North and South Audis will also be sold on the grid.

Now we look back at the conflict between Audi and FAW dealers at that time. It can be said that it directly led to the separation of SAIC Audi.

When SAIC Audi starts selling the A7L in 2022, due to grid-connected sales, SAIC Audi can only cooperate with FAW Audi dealers to sell the car.

This gave up its original dealer partners to a certain extent, and failed to achieve the original intention of "North and South Audi" to expand sales channels.

The question is, if you are a dealer, on one side is FAW Audi, which has been operating for many years and has a fixed customer base in the local area, and on the other side is the fledgling SAIC Audi, which side will you invest more in?

According to SAIC Audi's own information, as of the end of 2022, they have a total of more than 100 experience stores, and it will only start to gradually build user centers (4S stores) in 2023, which is too slow.

However, in addition to dealer problems, Audi's strategy also has to take the blame.

At that time, there was news that Audi was preparing to discontinue the production of personalized model product lines such as TT, R8, A5, and A7. On the other hand, FAW Audi firmly occupied hot-selling products such as A4L, A6L, Q5L, and Q7.

So if SAIC Audi wants to form differentiated competition with FAW Audi, it will be in a situation where it has no cars to sell.

So in the end, the A7L is more like taking the A6 and adjusting it for sports, and the positioning is very different.

You said that if SAIC Audi really takes the A7, codenamed C8, and makes it domestically, and the price is brought to the same level as the A6L, maybe there will be a chance. After all, that car is really handsome.

A7L in the upper image and A7 in the lower image.

Unfortunately, this has become the most fatal problem of A7L. The audience group is too small.

The wheelbase of the A7L is only 2 mm longer than that of the A6L. The stiffness of the suspension and the front and rear wheelbase have been slightly increased for handling, but the changes are not huge.

The more sporty appearance has screened out many customers who want to buy Audi in a low-key manner. This is equivalent to the fact that A7L only targets young people who are rich but don’t want to be so “old”.

A7L owner’s self-analysis.

But at that point in time in 2022, if you really want to be young and luxurious, people can just buy new forces.

Under various pressures, the sales volume of A7L in the past few months did not even reach four digits.

Facing this tragic situation, Jia Mingdi, then CEO of SAIC Audi, also said: "As long as we improve the customer experience, that's it." "Building a brand and building an image are our main goals."

Brother, new energy is on fire, and there isn’t much left in the window for fuel vehicles. Can you still be quiet in the years?

So marginal products such as the Q5 e-tron and Q6 that were launched later also fell one after another. In 2022, SAIC Audi sold 6,200 units for the whole year, with a target achievement rate of only 12%. CEO Jia Mingdi was replaced not long after.

However, there are still masters... Audi headquarters also frequently makes mistakes.

In 2023, Audi CEO Marcus announced a new naming rule of "odd oil, even electricity", which made it even worse for families who were not already wealthy.

It’s really the friendly businessmen racking their brains, it’s not as good as the friendly forces having an idea. Take a look at the magical A5L and you will know how big this mess is:

FAW Audi A5L and SAIC Audi A5L Sportback are the same car;

A5L is the replacement of A4L, and the new and old models are sold at the same time;

The initial price of the A5L dual car is more expensive than the BMW 3 Series, resulting in the A4L still selling for 7-8 thousand per month;

Seeing that the A4L was still selling so well, FAW Audi insisted on continuing to produce it.

I don’t know if you’ve figured it out yet, but Brother Neck is about to faint.

Two years have passed, A4L is still selling 1,000 to 2,000 or 2,000 yuan a month, and the clearance price of A5L Sportback is 250,000, which is still not comparable...

Audi also knew that it would be impossible to let FAW and SAIC compete like this, and its own pure electric technology just didn't make sense, so it cooperated with SAIC to create the ADP platform and create a new AUDI brand.

Hey, it’s okay if I don’t play with you. . ?

The answer is no, we have to chase and kill.

On the day the AUDI E5 Sportback was released, FAW Audi publicly mocked AUDI for not getting the four-ring logo.

Although FAW Audi later deleted the article, the words were like water thrown out. Even though Audi was indeed very careful on the E5 Sportback, the European team and the Chinese team really took turns to adjust, and it was not exactly "changing shells to wise themselves."

But the scornful names of “off-brand trams” and “IGUA” are so deeply rooted in people’s hearts that no matter how hard you explain, it’s useless.

Furthermore, the internal fighting has damaged the image of the entire Audi brand. If I were Audi, I would no longer want to play.

The next thing we mentioned at the beginning is that the entire Audi series has dropped in volume and price. According to data from Jielan Road, the weighted average price of Audi in 2025 has reached 287,000, and in the first half of this year it dropped to 263,000. The situation is not optimistic.

So for Audi China, it doesn’t matter what new technology or new car it launches. If we don’t arrange the two ancestors well, it will be the end.

Then it is only natural that North and South Audis are now separated.

However, FAW Audi has such a rich product lineup, what will SAIC Audi do with only the E5 Sportback and E7X?

Audi has a clear conscience about Yemen, so on September 3 this year, they jointly established the Audi Innovation Technology Center (AITC) with SAIC.

From the perspective of shareholding ratio, SAIC holds 49%, Audi holds 41%, and Volkswagen China holds 10%. SAIC is the single largest shareholder, which is full of respect.

And AITC's business scope is very wide, including complete vehicles and driving control, to AI smart cockpits and assisted driving systems.

It means that AUDI is really starting to stand on its own this time and is going to take root in China.

Based on the fact that joint venture car companies must undergo at least two rounds of "three high" tests, the first model developed by AITC is expected to be launched in 2028.

The ten-year conflict is being reunited at this moment.

Whether FAW Audi can keep up with fuel-powered Audi, and whether SAIC Audi can compete with new energy vehicles will all depend on two years from now.