Cars

Audi pledges an enriched product line

By Xiao Han (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-12 11:49
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Audi pledges an enriched product line

An Audi staff member explains some of the finer points during "Audi Tech Day". [China Daily]

China customers 'should have whatever products the German market has'

Luxury carmaker Audi will enrich its China product portfolio to match its global lineup by 2020 as the country could become its largest market in the next few years.

"The Chinese market should have whatever products the German market has," Johannes Thammer, general manager of the Audi sales division at Sino-German joint venture FAW-Volkswagen, said in a recent interview during an "Audi Tech Day" promotion.

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Audi currently has three locally made models in China - the A4L, A6L sedan and Q5 SUV - and several imported models, including the A5/S5, A8/S8, Q7, R8 and TT/TTS.

Last year, the company reported a 33 percent increase in its China sales to 157,188 vehicles, making the country its second-largest market only after Germany, where Audi moved 228,844 units last year.

The company aims to maintain strong growth this year and sell 200,000 cars in China. Its first-quarter sales reached 50,840 units, surging 77 percent over the same period in 2009.

During its Audi Tech Day in the southern city of Guilin, the company displayed its Q5 HFC (hybrid fuel cell) as well as a pure electric concept car, the "e-tron", to illustrate its latest achievements in new energy vehicles.

Thammer said the company will release Audi's first hybrid model - the Q5 hybrid - to the global media at the end of this year and formally launch the model in the first half of next year. It will enter the Chinese market in 2012 at the soonest, he added.

"I believe combustion engine technology will continue to play a dominant role in the auto industry for the next two decades," said Thammer, adding that purely electric cars will mainly be used in urban areas due to battery and charging limitations.

Thammer said that Audi reduced carbon emissions in all its products by 30 percent between 1995 and 2007, and plans to lower the figure by a further 20 percent by 2012 - the result of 5.5 billion euros ($7.34 billion) in investment over the next three years in R&D.

Audi's parent company Volkswagen Group recently confirmed its plan to build a new plant in south China's Guangdong province that will begin operation in 2013 at the earliest. "We will consider producing some Audi cars in the southern plant if necessary," said Thammer.