Cars
Luxury leader Audi to offer full lineup
By Gong Zhengzheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-25 15:35
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The Q5 attracted crowds at the Beijing Auto Show in April. Audi will sell its Q5 hybrid in China next year. [Photo/China Daily]
Pioneering carmaker has goal to sell its next million cars in just three years
BEIJING - German luxury carmaker Audi AG, owned by Volkswagen Group, expects to sell its next million vehicles in China in three years - some 20 years faster than its first million.
The aggressive plan was revealed by Dominique Boesch, general manager of the Audi Sales Division of Sino-German joint venture FAW Volkswagen Automobile Co Ltd last week in the northeastern city of Changchun where it celebrated its accumulated delivery a million vehicles in China since 1988.
To achieve the new sales goal, Boesch said Audi will introduce more models in next couple of years in China, which is already its biggest single market in the world.
"We will have products in all segments of the luxury car market in China by 2015," he said.
He said Audi will launch a Q5 petrol-electric hybrid model in China next year and the R8 e-tron purely electric-powered vehicle in the near future.
The top luxury car provider in China now assembles the Audi A6 and A4 sedans, as well as Q5 SUVs, in two plants in Changchun with a combined production capacity of more than 200,000 units a year.
It also delivers a range of imported models in China such as the A8, A3 and S8.
Audi's sales in the nation surged by 60.7 percent year-on-year to 174,900 cars in the first three quarters of this year, enabling it to easily maintain its decade-long lead in the country's luxury car market.
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Boesch said Audi will expand its dealer networks to all of Chinese cities to facilitate its sales.
The company plans to have more than 180 dealerships in China by the end of this year, up from 160 last year, he said.
The figure will grow to 500, Boesch said, without providing a timeline.
Zhang Xiaojun, executive deputy general manager of the Audi Sales Division of FAW Volkswagen, said that the new million sales target is based on a "fairly optimistic" outlook on China's luxury car market in the next three years.
He predicted that the luxury car market would rise by 40 percent next year from around 700,000 units expected this year.
About 400,000 luxury cars were sold in China last year, according to Audi's data.
Luxury cars now account for only 7 percent of the total passenger vehicle market in the nation, much lower than 15 to 20 percent in developed economies.
Audi's rival BMW moved 121,826 vehicles in China in the first three quarters of this year, while its another rival Mercedes-Benz moved 101,350 vehicles.