According to foreign media citing informed sources, the new all-electric model of the cooperation between Audi and SAIC Group will change the car logo and will not hang the iconic four-ring LOGO of Audi. The report points out that the reason for canceling the hanging of Audi’s four-ring LOGO is out of consideration of the brand image.
In response to the above news, Audi said it refused to comment on the so-called “speculation”; SAIC Group said that these electric vehicles will be “true” Audis with “pure” Audi genes.
It is worth mentioning that before, there were also rumors in the market that the new all-electric vehicle of the cooperation between Audi and SAIC will adopt an independent LOGO, and the new product will hang the “Audi” logo instead of Audi’s four-ring LOGO. However, this news has not been officially confirmed.
On July 26, 2023, Audi and SAIC signed a memorandum of understanding on deepening strategic cooperation. The two sides will combine their respective advantages to accelerate the development of SAIC Audi’s new all-electric models. On May 20, 2024, the two sides officially signed a cooperation agreement to further strengthen local cooperation. At that time, the official disclosed that the two sides will jointly develop a new platform focused on the Chinese market – the Advanced Digitized Platform, and build a new generation of high-end intelligent connected vehicle models based on this platform. The first batch of models will be three all-electric models covering the B-class and C-class vehicle market segments, equipped with the top software and hardware in the industry. Among them, the first all-electric vehicle will be launched to the market in 2025 and nine models will be launched in 2029. This cooperation model also greatly shortens the product listing cycle of Audi by more than 30%.
The importance of the car logo for an automaker is self-evident. For Audi, the gold content of the four-ring LOGO car logo is also very high. Audi’s logo consists of four closely connected circles, and each circle represents a company. Audi’s “four-ring” LOGO represents the four German automakers Audi (Audi), Horch (Horch), DKW, and Wanderer that formed the “Auto Union Company” in the 1930s and 1940s. In March 2022, Audi announced that it would incorporate the Bentley brand into the group and announced that the current “new four-ring” represents the four brands – Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Ducati – that are unified managed and independently operated by the Audi Group.
For automakers, the car logo is equivalent to the “face” of the brand. Therefore, when designing the car logo, automakers will incorporate the brand’s culture and design concepts, and to some extent also represent the brand’s image and spiritual totem, and changing the car logo is usually part of reshaping the brand image.
Audi released a new brand logo in November 2022. The new logo adopts a new flat four-ring logo, and the surface no longer uses chrome plating, but forms a high-contrast visual effect by white and black.
At present, Audi has a total of three joint venture companies in China, namely FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC Audi and Audi FAW. Among them, Audi has more dominance in Audi FAW. This company focuses on the development of new energy vehicles and is regarded as the key to Audi expanding the electric vehicle model lineup in China and even globally. Up to now, the official website shows that the new energy vehicles sold by Audi in China include Q2L e-tron, A6L e-tron, Q4 e-tron, e-tron, Q5L e-tron, etc., but the sales performance is not outstanding. Retail data shows that in the first half of this year, the model with the highest sales volume for Audi is Q4 e-tron with 7471 units, Q5 e-tron is 2200 units, e-tron is 304 units, and Q2L e-tron is only 7 units.
In short, at present, Audi has not yet had a model that can support sales in the new energy vehicle market, and its performance in the new energy market is significantly behind that of its competitors. “How to launch a new all-electric vehicle recognized by consumers” has become an urgent issue for Audi.
As a traditional luxury brand, Audi knows that only by accelerating the pace of electrification transformation can the possibility of falling behind be reduced. As for whether Audi and SAIC Group can build a model recognized by the market and consumers in cooperation, more time is still needed to give an answer. Previously, Oliver Blume, the chief executive officer of the Volkswagen Group, publicly promised to revive the highlight moment of Audi in the future.
If the above news is true, after the new all-electric vehicle of the cooperation between Audi and SAIC Group does not hang Audi’s iconic four-ring LOGO, will consumers still accept it? It is worthy of attention.
