Audi opens China R&D center in Beijing

Audi announced the opening of its new R&D center in Beijing, China. The new 6,000 square meters facility spans five floors and has room for all departments of Audi China's R&D division. Audi Design China gets a dedicated area where it will use the latest technology including virtual reality.

It is a significant move for Audi and it signals the company’s commitment to the Chinese market and its importance to the company. Audi has been present in China for more than 30 years, the new building will serve as an innovation hub and teams working from there will be responsible for development of the future Audi technologies.

Audi’s new R&D team received a significant bump in personnel numbers and this team will use its knowledge of the local market to develop cars and technology aimed at the Chinese customers. The division will mainly focus on smart cockpit technology and will work on new display technologies as well. New voice assistance and control systems will be developed in-house and new connectivity solutions will be explored.

User interface is one of those parts of the car that customers interact with and that’s what sets brands apart - some get it right and some fail miserably. Audi is learning quickly the importance of software and its local team will be responsible for developing China-specific user interfaces.

We can expect to see China-only Audi electric cars in the near future. The company has the Audi FAW NEV factory project in Changchun underway, where it plans to build electric cars based on the PPE platform exclusive to the Chinese market only. Once completed in 2024, the factory will be able to produce 150,000 electric cars per year. The €2.6 billion factory investment will create 3,000 local jobs.

Audi is very popular with Chinese customers as it is, but it believes it can achieve bigger success with unique vehicles, cars that don’t come from abroad but are designed and made in China. That is in fact the message Audi is proudly promoting - made in China for China.

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