Tag Archives: SAIC

Audi Becoming AUDI in China

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No, that’s not a problem with the caps-lock on the keyboard…

By Gary S. Vasilash

Like many Western brands, Audi is having a bit of a struggle in China, a market it has been in since 1988.

After all, not only are native Chinese brands offering an array of compelling vehicles at all price points, including the upper end where Audi resides, but there is probably something of a bit of nationalism, as Chinese consumers are turning toward Chinese brands.

Consequently Audi is making a shift in its strategy in China and has developed the “Advanced Digitized Platform” with Chinese company SAIC.

AUDI E concept introduced at the Shanghai Motor Show. All caps. No rings. Is it going to shift perceptions of the brand in China? (Image: Audi. Or maybe AUDI)

According to Audi CEO Gernot Döllner: “The joint platform will be the basis for a new generation of state-of-the-art intelligent connected vehicles exclusive to China. The upcoming models are aimed at a promising and simultaneously demanding new customer segment. The cooperation will further expand the Audi portfolio of battery electric vehicles in China and accelerate the company’s transformation in the world’s largest market.”

The platform will be used to develop three models that fall within the midsize and full-size segments, with the first model becoming available next year.

Audi says the collaboration with SAIC allows a >30% decrease in the time required to get a model in market.

In addition to which, Audi has created a new brand for the China market:

AUDI

That’s right: an all-cap version of the existing name.

Also, the famous four-right logo is jettisoned.

Döllner:

“By launching this new brand for electric and intelligent models in China, Audi is breaking new ground to tap into new and more tech-savvy customer segments.”

Seems like Audi in China becoming AUDI is China is the sort of change that a company that is afraid of making a major change would do.

Too little too late?

U.K., MG, EV

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The past isn’t necessarily prologue. . .

By Gary S. Vasilash

According to the British trade association the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), through the first half of 2024 the car brand MG had 4.38% of the UK market.

While that may seem, at first blush, somewhat trivial, it should be noted that MINI was a 2.11%, Land Rover 3.26%, and Ford at 5.64%–and as for that last-named, I’ve been told by people who live there that Ford has been on the scene so long that it is considered indigenous to the U.K., and that Ford’s U.K. showroom has a breadth of offerings that dwarfs MG’s.

MINI is owned by BMW. Land Rover by Tata Motors. And MG SAIC Motor.

MG was established in Oxford in 1930 and had a run until 1972, when its then-owner British Leyland, which itself no longer exists, stopped using the marque.

SAIC has owned the brand since 2005. (It was purchased by Nanjing Automobile Group that year, then SAIC acquired Nanjing in 2007.)

Presently MG offers 11 models in the U.K. of which only four are pure ICE vehicles, with the remainder hybrids or EVs.

But next month a British company, Frontline Cars, is going to be bringing its MGB-based LE60 to Monterey.

The Frontline LE60. An MGB brought up to date with a V8. (Image: Frontline Cars)

Interestingly, this restomod is powered by a 375 bhp 4.8-liter V8. Frontline points out that this is “almost quadruple the power of the original MGB.”

But one wonders: while the company now selling vehicles carrying the MG badge are mainly non-ICE, doesn’t a V8-powered sportscar that is returned and updated from the past seem like some sort of curio?