Audi, SAIC EV tie-up a 'coming of age' for Chinese auto industry

Audi’s decision to partner with SAIC Motor to develop electric vehicles marks a turning point in China’s automotive industry from learning from foreign manufacturers to innovating its own technology.

Audi said Thursday it reached an agreement with state-owned SAIC in which the two companies will accelerate the electrification of their portfolio as China’s auto market rapidly shifts to EVs.

Audi did not give further details. The company is reported to be seeking to use a platform owned by IM Motors, SAIC's premium EV brand.

Zu Sijie, SAIC’s chief engineer, told reporters on Thursday that the company is deepening its cooperation with Audi, and licensing or joint development are options for future projects.

Automotive platforms that include functions and components such as the powertrain, chassis and electrical architecture are used to maximize return on investment and save costs by being shared across a range of different models.

Audi's parent Volkswagen Group, which partners with SAIC to produce gasoline-powered cars. VW Group has used platforms from other automakers in the past, such as Ford’s truck platform, but it has not considered a Chinese partner before.

“Chinese carmaking has finally come of age,” said Stephen Dyer, the Shanghai-based managing director at consultancy AlixPartners. “To get a vote of confidence from VW Group on platforms, you cannot underestimate the significance.”

The Audi-SAIC deal comes just weeks after Audi appointed new CEO Gernot Döllner, a 54-year-old VW veteran, to address challenges such as being slow to electrify and coming up with new models. Tesla outsold Audi globally in the first quarter and Audi's market share in China is shrinking.

Audi needs to accelerate its electrification in China to maintain market share, but new EV launches have been constrained by VW Group’s long development cycle, especially for its new Premium Platform Electric platform produced with Porsche. This makes Audi less competitive against rapidly upgrading local competitors, said Jing Yang, the director of China Corporate Research at Fitch Ratings.

As China’s largest auto group, SAIC has accumulated a complete set of EV technologies, and the success of its MG brand in Europe and the emerging IM Motor marque shows its capability in producing competitive cars across market segments, including the high-end, Yang said.

“Their cooperation sets a good start for the Chinese auto industry in that China automakers are starting to be the licensor, not the licensee, of technologies,” she said.

Chinese manufacturers are gaining more bargaining power with their global partners, and more international manufacturers may seek deals with Chinese companies, at least to serve the local market as they need to ramp up EV sales, Yang said.

New energy vehicle sales, which include EVs and plug-in hybrids, rose 37 percent in the first half of 2023, while sales of gasoline cars fell 8 percent.

Yale Zhang, the managing director of Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive Foresight, said VW and Audi are in the process of building a plant in Changchun to make vehicles on the Premium Platform, but the first models will not roll off the production line until late 2024 and the software features in several of VW’s platforms keep getting delayed.

“The deal shows VW’s software capability is lacking,” Zhang said. “It’s evident that China is now leading in developing intelligent EVs and in the transition to EVs.”