Mumbai: After Mercedes Benz and BMW, it's Audi's turn to up the heat in the luxury segment, amid reports that the car-maker is going to pump new investments to take on the tough competition.
Audi is gunning for luxury car market leader Mecedes Benz's flagship model E-class and the BMW 5 series.
It has started with the local assembly of the luxury model A6 way before the cheaper A4 model. The A4, which will also be assembled at Skoda's Aurangabad facility, will be released in late 2008.
An investment of €10 million has been made and €20 million or Rs 150 crore more will be pumped in by 2015.
Though Audi is a latecomer, the company feels the growth in the luxury car market, estimated at around 4,000 units a year, is going to get bigger.
“The market has grown at 20%. With more products, including from Audi like A8, Q7, TT, it will grow more,” says Audi India’s MD Benoit Tiers.
To grow its volumes, Audi plans to add five more dealerships in two years to the seven it has currently. Through them, it targets to sell 3000 Audis by then.
Audi's India assembly plant is its second in Asia and it hopes India will contribute a good portion to its target of selling 1.5 million cars per year globally by 2015.
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