(Yicai) Sept. 1 -- IM Motors, the joint venture between SAIC Motor, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, and Alibaba Group Holding, has signed a memorandum of understanding with German carmaker Audi to join hands on electric vehicles, according to IM Motors’ co-chief executive officer.

IM Motors and Audi signed an MOU to promote the former’s intelligent EV platform, Liu Tao told Yicai recently, adding that more details will be disclosed later.

SAIC announced in July that it had reached an agreement with Audi for the latter to use IM Motors’ EV production platform, engines, batteries, electronic controls, lower body, and intelligent driving system.

During the interview, Liu told Yicai about IM Motors’ new model, the LS6. With a presale price of between CNY230,000 and CNY300,000 (USD31,671 and USD41,290), the LS6 is scheduled to hit the market in early or mid-October. The first batch of deliveries will begin by the end of next month.

In just over one hour of presales, the orders of the LS6, IM Motors’ third model, exceeded that of the LS7 by three folds, Liu said.

“IM Motors’ third and fourth models mainly aim to fight for sales in the mainstream market,” Liu said.

IM Motors is positioned in the high-end EV market. But sales of the L7 and LS7, two models priced above CNY300,000, fell behind competitors such as Nio, Li Auto, and Zeekr. IM Motors sold only 9,790 units in the first half of the year, while its annual sales target was 45,000 units, according to SAIC’s statistics.

Editor: Futura Costaglione