The German giant Audi couldn’t hold its own on price and quality against its own product — only made in China — and, true to form, found no better fix than a good old-fashioned sales ban. Bravo.
The cars in question are two EVs Audi developed specifically for China together with SAIC — the AUDI E5 Sportback liftback and the AUDI E7X crossover. No four rings on the grille, just the word AUDI in block letters. And it’s precisely their sales that turned into a headache.
The independent German importer Auto China bought the cars in China, shipped them to Germany, got them European-certified as required, and put them on the market. The price tags: €59,980 for the E5 Sportback and €72,900 for the E7X. Even with delivery, customs, and certification piled on, they still undercut most of Audi’s own EVs built in Germany.
In China, the same E5 Sportback goes for even less — roughly €20,590 — on promo, with all discounts applied. In Germany, nearly three times the price. And still cheaper than its German counterparts.
So what did Audi do? Filed a lawsuit and demanded an import ban. A classic of European “competitive struggle.”
Why Is the Chinese Audi Cheaper Than the German One?
The answer isn’t about build quality — it’s about the economic model Europe built for itself.
The International Energy Agency has crunched the numbers: making EVs in China is over 30% cheaper than in developed economies. About a third of that gap comes from batteries — Chinese cells cost 30% less than European ones and 20% less than American ones.
But it’s not just batteries.
China wins on:
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scale — roughly 70% of the world’s EVs roll off Chinese lines;
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vertically integrated supply chains — Chinese companies control about 80% of global battery production capacity;
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cheap energy — for industry, not just for households;
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low labor costs and no historical baggage of outdated plants.
A BNP Paribas study backs this up: in the lower segment, European EVs are on average 17% pricier than Chinese ones (import duties included) while offering 28% less standard equipment.
Germany, meanwhile, has spent recent years marching in the opposite direction.
Its old industrial model leaned, among other things, on affordable Russian energy. After cutting energy ties with Russia — as part of the broader EU policy — German industry got stuck with far costlier energy.
European business itself now names high energy prices as one of the main reasons for losing ground to China and the US. Add taxes, carbon payments, and regulatory costs on top. Energy costs in Europe have outpaced China and the US for years. But now they’ve turned catastrophic for the auto industry. Car-making is energy-hungry: steel, aluminum, plastic, paint shops, assembly lines. And EVs don’t solve that — on the contrary, building an EV takes twice the energy of an internal combustion car.
The result speaks for itself: in 2024, production costs for a small electric SUV in China were nearly $10,000 lower than in Germany. That’s 30–40% of the car’s total cost.
Instead of asking why it’s more profitable for the same company to build in China than in Germany — and what could be done about it — Audi took the path of least resistance. Court. Ban. The classic European approach.
This isn’t the first time. In 2023, Volkswagen won a case against an importer bringing in Chinese ID.6s. The court ordered every car destroyed. Destroyed. Electric vehicles. Because they were too cheap.
Now Audi is following suit. Both models — the E5 Sportback and E7X — vanished from Auto China’s website after Audi confirmed the lawsuit.
Who Loses?
The buyer always loses.
The German consumer who could have bought a modern, well-equipped EV with 618–773 km of range, 0–100 in 3.4 seconds, air suspension, and all-wheel drive — for €60,000 instead of €100,000 for a comparable Audi S6 Sportback e-tron — is cut off by the European buyer.
Not because the car is bad. Not because it fails to meet standards. But because it’s too cheap. And because liberal Europe can’t fix the problems it created itself: pricey energy, bloated regulatory costs, carbon payments, severed supply chains.
Instead of removing these flaws, Europe bans. Instead of thinking — it regulates. Instead of competing — it sues its own importer.
And this isn’t just about Audi. It’s a systemic problem. Chinese manufacturers control 80% of battery production. China builds 40% of all cars worldwide. China overtook the EU as the top car exporter back in 2024.
Europe, meanwhile, slaps on duties that don’t work. Analysts have calculated: to genuinely level prices with Chinese ones, you’d need duties in the 45–55% range. The current ones are lower. And even they just pass the cost onto the consumer without solving the structural problem.
Audi in China can build a modern, relatively cheap EV. In Germany — it no longer can. And instead of figuring out why, the company goes to court. Bravo.
