A German company is importing Audi’s China-only E5 Sportback and E7X, models Audi never intended to sell in Europe, and registering them for road use. Even after shipping and homologation they undercut Audi’s European-built equivalents by thousands of euros.
Audi built two electric cars it never wanted Europeans to buy. They are now being registered in Germany by someone else.
An importer called Auto China is bringing in the E5 Sportback and the E7X, the models Audi developed with SAIC for the Chinese market under its all-caps AUDI brand. The same company has previously imported the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and the Zeekr 9X.
The prices are the problem for Audi. The top E5 pairs 579 kW with a 100 kWh battery and lands roughly €28,000 below an S6 Sportback e-tron, a car with the same size battery, 543 horsepower and a cost base Volkswagen cannot match in Europe.
The SUVs tell the same story. An E7X costs about €86,800 shipped, registered and with VAT paid, against €93,800 for a smaller, less powerful SQ6 e-tron in Germany.
Those numbers include getting the cars past the border. EU duties on battery electric cars built in China run from 17.8% to 45.3% depending on the manufacturer, and the imported Audis still undercut the German-built ones, in a market where Chinese brands already hold a record 14.2% share.
It is the gap Volkswagen Group has been describing for two years, arriving from the wrong direction. The group builds more cheaply in China than it can at home, and this time the badge on the imported car is its own.
Audi’s response is a technical one. A spokesperson said the AUDI models sit on an Advanced Digitized Platform developed with SAIC and are “deeply integrated into China’s digital ecosystem.”
Buyers should read that as a warning rather than a boast. Repair knowledge is thin in Europe, spare parts supply is untested, and the driver assistance sensors were calibrated for Chinese roads.
There is also a precedent nobody in this trade enjoys. A dealer imported around 20 Chinese-market Volkswagen ID.6s, Volkswagen sued in 2023, sales were frozen and the cars that had arrived were destroyed.
The trade body is not encouraging anyone either. “As a dealer, I would not bring vehicles from China,” said Ansgar Klein of the BVfK, adding that even with legal clearance “there remains a de facto residual risk.”
The awkwardness is structural. Volkswagen has spent this year asking Brussels for more protection from Chinese-built cars. The newest Chinese-built car on a German number plate is an Audi.
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