Audi and FAW said to establish a mobility service company, shadowing SAIC-Audi cooperation

Shanghai (Gasgoo)-According to an internal file from Audi, the company will establish a new mobility service company with FAW. The schedule showed that the board has approved all related open contracts and the deal is in the stage of negotiating the contents of memorandum of understanding. It is said that the companies will announce the cooperation at 2018 Beijing auto show and the new company will start business next April.

The new company will be a subsidy of FAW, just as FAW-Volkswagen Audi. A source familiar with the matter said the mobility service company will also take action in new energy field. However, it is noted that part of the new company’s business will overlap that of the planned cooperation between Audi and SAIC.

At present, FAW is unlikely to let Audi go while SAIC may not come to terms if relevant interests are not satisfied.

In May, Audi and its dealers in China reached an agreement on how cars made by SAIC will be sold. From then on, the progress of the cooperation between Audi and SAIC has attracted lots of attention. In the same month, Joachim Wedler, President of Audi China, the joint venture contract negotiation will be completed this year. There are only three months left, but more details haven’t been made public.

An Audi dealer once told the media that since the distribution principle has been confirmed, he is less concerned about the progress of the cooperation between Audi and SAIC. But in his opinion, the cooperation seemed hard to realize.

A worker in SAIC said he had little idea of the details, but the project team had been dismissed and the cooperation had been suspended.

But Jochem Heizmann, President of Volkswagen Group China, reiterated at the Frankfurt show that SAIC and Audi program haven’t been suspended and the companies are still in negotiation.