Audi has long stated that it wants to become the world's best-selling premium brand by 2015. It will achieve this goal by investing heavily in research and development, launching exciting new products that stay true to its core values, and giving customers excellent quality and service. Now, experts at global insight believe Audi's goal is looking more than just a goal, it is looking more like reality. Most importantly, do YOU agree with IHS Global Insight's prediciton?
Outlook and Implications
Audi appears to be closing in on achieving its goal of becoming the world's biggest premium passenger carmaker by 2015, going by this latest quarterly sales result. The pace of the brand's sales volume growth in the first quarter of 2010 outstripped its two principal rivals and the company has a major advantage in its market-leading position in China, which is largely down to the early entry of its parent, the VW Group, into China in the mid-1980s. As a result Audi has been able to tap into the VW Group's marketing, distribution and dealership network in China. During the first quarter of the year Audi's sales increased by 77.3% y/y in China, with the company's entire sales volume in the Asia-Pacific region totalling 64,450 units, the vast majority of which were generated in China. BMW enjoyed even higher growth in China, albeit from a much lower base, of 106.1% y/y to 34,179 units. However, the company's production joint venture (JV) with Brilliance is yet to offer the scale and market reach that Audi has in China. Audi is also looking to increase its market presence in the United States, where it has been traditionally weak in comparison to its two main rivals, not helped by negative publicity surrounding alleged incidents of unintended acceleration that blighted the Audi 5000 in the 1980s. The company may even build models at the new VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is due to go online in 2011, with Audi's management due to make a decision by the end of the year. Given the increased emphasis on the United States and its market-leading position in China, Audi's goal of becoming the world's biggest premium carmaker within the next five years looks very achievable.
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