6.1.12

Audi's fastest growing market

German carmaker Audi is upbeat on India. The last to enter among the luxury makers, Audi has tasted quick success in the market and has seen India emerge as its fastest growing market in the world, ahead of big markets like China, Russia, Japan and France. And now, as the company gears up to launch the Q3 mini SUV at the bottom-end of the luxury market, it has set its eyes on being numero uno in India. The Q3 will be the company’s entry-level SUV in India and will compete with BMW’s X1 mini SUV, which is one of the largest-selling luxury model in the country. While Mercedes Benz has been in India for more than a decade, Audi entered in 2007, a little later than BMW. And just like BMW, the company is picking pace since its debut and is perilously close to changing leadership dynamics. While small on volumes,India’s growth was higher than Audi’s growth in markets like China (35%), Russia (26%), Japan (22%) and France (18%). Schwarzenbauer said India’s fast-growing luxury market would mean that Audi’s volumes would also pick up in the coming years. Audi hopes that its volumes in India will grow to a massive 50,000 units by 2020. The company, however, will have to boost production at its assembly facility at Aurangabad that it shares with group company Skoda. At present, Audi assembles sedans A4 and A6 and SUV Q5 at the plant. It will start assembling Q7 SUV too by this year-end and the Q3 may be brought through the same route.

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