Pune gets its first Audi showroom

Audi India plans to introduce the latest generation of its A4 in July this year, even though production of this model will only begin at the end of the year at its plant in Aurangabad.

Following the “extremely encouraging” response to the car at the recent Auto Expo in New Delhi, the A4 will be brought to India only a few months after the right-hand-drive version is introduced in Europe, according to Audi India's managing director Benoit Tiers.

In order to get the car to the market as soon as possible, it will be imported as a CBU beginning July, but sold at a CKD price “from day one”, he said. The A4 product line coming up in Aurangabad will make 500 cars in its first year. The current line that produces the A6 was commissioned in November 2006 and will produce 300 cars this year.

The company has invested euros 30 million in Aurangabad, euros 20 million on the A6 line and euros10 million more for the A4. “Beyond the A4, we are investigating which products to bring here. Our intention is to assemble most of our models here,” Tiers declared.

The company is extremely happy about the quality of the cars produced at Aurangabad, he said. “There is no difference between a car produced at Aurangabad and one produced in Germany.”

Audi will only produce at Aurangabad and not share the Volkswagen facility coming up at Chakan, he added.

Tiers and other Audi officials were in Pune recently to inaugurate the first Audi showroom in the city. The 6,500 square feet showroom can display six cars. In addition, Pashankar Auto India Pvt Ltd, the concessionaire, has opened a workshop and premium bodyshop at a separate location.

More showrooms planned

This latest addition follows the opening of Audi’s Hyderabad dealership in February, and Gurgaon in January, and will be followed by Chandigarh in April, Kolkata and Chennai the following month, and Ahmedabad and Kochi at the end of the year. “We will have 15 dealers by the end of 2009,” Tiers said.

The price range of the cars on display at Audi Pune starts from Rs 25 lakh for the base A4 going up to Rs 1.25 crore for the A8. The Q7, which was the second-fastest-selling model after the A6 in 2007, will cost Rs 52.75 lakh, according to Kapil Pashankar, managing director of Audi Pune. He expects to sell 120 cars in 2008.

Audi India sold 350 cars all over India last year, 110 of those were the Q7 SUV. “We could have sold more, but our plant couldn’t supply that many,” Tiers said, adding that the company would soon hit 100 cars a month following sales of 80 cars in March and 60 each in February and January.

The A6 will remain the best-selling model in 2008, he said, adding that he expects sales of the Q7 to double. With more than 964,000 cars sold worldwide in 2007, Audi is the fastest-growing luxury car manufacturer in the world.

From April onwards, the company will provide a unique roadside assistance service anywhere in India. “If a car should break down, our Flying Technicians will come to the spot and either fix the problem or pick the car up and truck it to the nearest dealer,” Tiers said, adding that Audi would make a separate announcement on this shortly.