Audi's double-life exposed

Audi’s China-only brand AUDI has just debuted its next vehicle in concept form — the E SUV.

Audi is living a double life releasing cars you’ve never seen nor heard of in China under its AUDI brand. Yes, all uppercased and without any sign of the familiar four rings. 

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When AUDI launched the E5 Sportback in September, the company received 10,153 orders within the first 30 minutes of the books opening. Impressive even by Chinese standards.

Now AUDI is offering a taste of its follow up act for China with the E SUV Concept, which was unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show over the weekend.

The E SUV Concept is an SUV version of the E5 Sportback, which is expected to be formally named the AUDI E8 SUV when it goes into production.

The E SUV Concept shares similar styling to the E5, with its signature giant LED trapezoidal lighting from and rear, but brings its own flavour with an SUV coupe design.

Industry publication Car News China reports that the E8 will also use the same Advanced Digitised Platform (ADP) as the E5 and also use tech from Audi’s joint venture partner SAIC’s IM Motors brand.

Car News China predicts the top grade E8 will be equipped with 800V architecture, along with a 109kWh battery with a range of up to 700km (CLTC).

Single-motor rear and dual motor all-wheel drive variants will be available with the latter producing a combined 500kW with an estimated 0-100km/h sprint coming in under five seconds.

We don't know what the cabin of the concept looks like, it makes sense to assume the interior is much like the E5 Sportback with an expansive curved screen that traverses the dash of a minimalist but luxurious looking cabin.

The Chinese launch of the E8 is expected in early 2026. As for when it comes to Australia, unfortunately that's very unlikely to happen. The closest Australians can get to driving and Audi E8 or E5 is through one of IM Motors products currently being sold in Australia. 

IM has arrived in Australia as a luxury sub brand of MG. The current line-up includes the IM5 sedan and IM6 SUV. 

The top-of-the-range IM6 Performance comes in at $80,990 and comes standard with a 100kWh battery with up to 505km of range, dual motors for all-wheel drive making 572kW and 702Nm, and 800V architecture.