The Hindu Business Line : Audi upbeat on India; A4 rollout by Nov

Hyderabad, Feb. 2 German luxury automotive major Audi is upbeat on India and plans to rollout its A4 assembled in the recently created Aurangabad manufacturing base by November.

The Indian assembly, wherein the company invested about $30 million, would make the car cheaper by about Rs 2 lakh.

The company is in the process of expanding its dealership network from the present three to about 10 by the third quarter of this year with one each in Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, and Kochi. This would complement the existing ones at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and to-be-launched centre in Gurgaon. The Managing Director of Audi India, Mr Benoit Tiers, said that Indian economy is witnessing booming times, and the luxury car market is growing at a fast pace. Last year, this market segment saw a growth of about 50 per cent and this augured well for Audi.

Building Strategy

The company has embarked on a multi-pronged strategy building on sales and dealership network, creating a base for assembly of cars, and expanding the market reach. Now most of the elements of this strategy are coming together and the assembly line would add to the company flexibility, he said.

By 2010, Audi is looking at sales volumes of about 3,000 cars per annum across its models. If the entire Audi range has to be displayed, it requires large format showrooms, he explained.

Launching its Hyderabad dealership, Mr Benoit said that seven popular models have been displayed at the showroom and with a larger facility coming up, the entire range could be on show.

Encouraging response

Already, the company dealership here has received a very encouraging response with about two and a half dozen enquiries. Most the enquires are from corporate houses, the movie world, IT professionals and those who have already experienced these cars abroad.

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