Two electric cars Audi does not sell in Europe are listed for sale in Germany. A European importer trading as Auto China buys the AUDI E5 Sportback and E7X in China, ships them, and puts them through German type approval itself. Audi has no part in it.
The E5 Sportback lists at €59,980 (about $70,200) and the E7X at €72,900 (about $85,300), according to Carscoops, which first reported the listings. In China the same cars have guide prices of ¥235,900 ($34,900) and ¥269,800 ($40,000). Shipping, certification and import duty account for the gap, spread across a handful of cars rather than a shipment.
The comparison is wider still in the version doing the rounds, because SAIC Audi has been running a limited-time offer that takes ¥30,000 off the E5 Sportback, bringing it to ¥205,900 ($30,500). That is a promotional figure, not the list price.
What the cars are
Neither model wears the four rings. AUDI is a separate badge Audi created with SAIC for China alone. Both cars use the Advanced Digitized Platform developed by the joint venture, at 800 volts on the E5 Sportback and 900 on the E7X. The E5 Sportback runs four trims, from a 299 hp rear-drive version to a 787 hp quattro. Its 773 km CLTC figure belongs to the 525 hp trim, not the 787 hp one, which returns 647 km on the same 100 kWh pack. The E7X went on sale in China on 29 May 2026 across five trims, from ¥269,800 to ¥359,800 ($40,000 to $53,300).
The part with no answer yet
A car built for one market and certified privately for another has no factory behind it. Audi’s European network has no obligation to service these cars, no parts catalogue for them and no warranty position, and the buyer holds all of that. Volkswagen has already gone to court over parallel imports of the Chinese ID.6, so the group’s view of the practice is on record.
Auto China has not said how many cars it has brought in.
The AUDI E5 Sportback is Audi's China-only electric shooting brake, built with SAIC on the 800V ADP platform with no four rings on the badge. Four trims span a 299 hp RWD base to a 787 hp quattro AWD flagship, with CLTC range up to 773 km. Prices start from ¥235,900.
Audi's flagship electric SUV for China, built on the 900V ADP platform by the SAIC-Volkswagen joint venture and sold under the AUDI badge rather than the four rings. Five trims run from ¥269,800 ($40,000), with a 408 hp rear-drive version and a 680 hp quattro that reaches 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds.
Germany