Asia Tech Wire (Sep 25) -- Audi's first car in its new partnership project with Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor Corp. could be a B-segment all-electric vehicle, according to Chinese media outlet 36Kr.

In September, Audi first revealed specific information about its new partnership project with SAIC.

Audi SAIC is a new project independent of the SAIC-Audi joint venture, focusing on the research and development of new pure-electric vehicles, of which the development work will be shared by Audi, SAIC and SAIC-Volkswagen teams, said the project's head, Fermín Soneira.

Currently, Audi has appointed more than 50 technical experts from its German headquarters to Shanghai to participate in the R&D work, and the new car will be unveiled in November this year and formally introduced to the market next year.

36Kr has learned that the first car in the Audi SAIC project, internally codenamed "purple427," is a B-segment pure electric car.

The new car is being developed by a Chinese team, and the program cycle is less than 18 months, which is more than half the length of the Audi e-tron series.

A supply chain source said that the Audi SAIC project is fully enabled by the SAIC supply chain, "almost all of the work is docking with the SAIC team, Audi is only involved in individual configurations."

The first batch of this new car will be available only in the Chinese market, the source said.