Audi India is planning to drastically change its strategy, starting from discontinuing diesel engines.
Amid the bloodbath that the industry is witnessing, luxury carmaker Audi has been very badly hit. The company is looking at the lowest sales numbers yet since 2010. Figures have been declining for the past 4 years for them. To fix this, Audi has come up with a road-map to get back the volume by 2022.
Audi is planning to discontinue diesel offerings from its portfolio by April 2020 and shift its focus to hybrid and petrol vehicles. Audi India head, Mr. Rahil Ansari has also been replaced by Mr. Balbir Singh Dhillon who has already been part of the leadership team and has a good understanding of the dealership ecosystem. Closure of dealerships has been a key factor behind the declining sales and his expertise might come in handy to fix the situation. There have also been gaps in the company’s portfolio that will soon be filled with the new A6, A8 and Q8 coming this year and the E-tron which will be coming next year.
Audi has been tight-lipped about the local production of some of its models and has stated that there will be a gap in local production of BS6 models. The A3’s BS6 variant still hasn’t been confirmed. It is expected that the Q3 BS6 model could come in as a CBU with the Q5 BS6 coming in with local manufacturing. The company may add the Q2 as a CBU model later. With no entry-level diesel cars and low local manufacturing, the sale numbers are bound to drop even further for the year 2020. The company is now considering the road towards 2022 as preparation time. Starting from all petrol A8 and Q8, the company will start its transition away from diesel engines.
The company has blamed both global and local factors as a reason for delayed launches and low sales. The introduction of the EU’s new WLTP testing system has delayed internationally as well as domestic product launches. Coming back to the homeland, even though GST has settled down, there have been other taxes which have increased over time and has lead to increased costs. This has hurt the sales very much.
Audi BS6 Cars
– Overhauled road-map till 2022 planned
– Audi will discontinue diesel engines by 2020; to focus on petrol and hybrid models
– Will limit local production of BS6 models
– Company will soon bring the new A6, A8, Q8 and E-tron models to India
Source – ETAuto.com
