Nobody saw this price gap coming — and it has already blown past €30,000. Independent importer Auto China is offering the Chinese-built AUDI E5 Sportback Flagship quattro in Germany for €68,730. The official Audi S6 Sportback e-tron currently starts at €99,500. The gap: €30,770. That's a serious number, however you slice it.
What makes this a paradox is that Audi built the AUDI brand together with SAIC specifically for China — and now the cars are driving straight back into the parent company's home market. The circle has closed. Audi itself officially describes the E5 and E7X as products tailored to Chinese buyers and the local digital ecosystem. The E5 is built in Shanghai and puts out up to 579 kW, or 787 hp; the E7X has already become the second series-production EV in AUDI's Chinese lineup.
Auto China lists 647 km of CLTC range for the E5 Flagship, a 0-100 km/h sprint of 3.4 seconds, air suspension, rear-wheel steering, lidar, 11 cameras and a 59-inch display panel. The importer claims European registration, a charging adapter, delivery, and a two-year service-and-warranty package. But this isn't Audi's official European factory warranty — it's an independent channel's offer. That distinction matters.
With the E7X, the price clash repeats itself — with an even more interesting technical twist. Auto China's configurator shows €81,650 for the four-seat Flagship quattro with selected extras. The official Audi SQ6 Sportback e-tron in Germany starts at €96,200. That's a gap of roughly €14,550. And here's the kicker: the Chinese E7X delivers 500 kW, or around 680 hp, while the SQ6 Sportback e-tron peaks at just 380 kW, or 517 hp. The Chinese version is simply the more powerful car.
But the savings come with uncertainty attached. An Audi spokesperson told Automobilwoche: “The sister brand AUDI's models are based on their own Advanced Digitized Platform, developed jointly with our partner SAIC, and are deeply integrated into China's digital ecosystem.” That means driver-assistance systems, online features and the software infrastructure all need separate evaluation outside the Chinese market. There are also open questions about spare parts availability and repair experience for these cars in Europe.
It's the service side that actually separates this import from a normal European Audi purchase. A low price doesn't buy you into Audi's standard European support model just because the badge on the trunk says AUDI. Germany's Federal Association of Independent Car Dealers is treading carefully around the scheme. Its president, Ansgar Klein, put it bluntly: “As a dealer, I wouldn't import cars from China myself. Even if the lawyers give the green light, there's still real residual risk.” A warning straight from the industry.
The price gap stands out even more given recent changes to Audi's European lineup: Audi has been upgrading equipment on its own A6 e-tron without necessarily raising the base price — but even that doesn't erase the fundamental gap in cost structure and positioning between the Chinese and German ranges.
For now, the E5 and E7X in Germany are best understood not as a new European Audi model line, but as an expensive parallel-import gamble with an unusually attractive price tag. The real test ahead isn't how many cars get imported — it's how European registration, repairs, software features and parts supply hold up over years of real-world use. Time will tell whether the savings were worth the risk.
