Audi focuses on premium sedan market to boost image in upmarket
Audi is one of the leading luxury car brands in Europe. In the United States, however, Audi is still trailing Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz in terms of sales. In 2009, Audi sold 82,716 units in the U.S. while its competition was able to rid their inventories of double that sales figure.
Audi aims to focus on selling their premium sedans like the A6, A7 4-door coupe, and the new A8. This move is primarily to bring the brand to the higher segment of the market and catch up with the leaders of the luxury market.
The U.S. top executive of Audi is foreseeing the sales of the three sedans to make up the 25% of their North America sales pie chart in a matter of fiver years. Last year the A6 and the A8 comprised the 10% of Audi’s sales in the U.S.
The A4 will still be the bread and butter unit of the brand making up for 40% of the total sales – including the new Audi A4 Allroad Quattro. Audi management though is hoping to build up the image of their premium sedans which can also serve as their halo models.
The game plan will start to materialize as the 2011 Audi A8 rolls off the assembly line by mid of 2010. Audi is looking at 4,500 units of the 2011 A8 to be sold to their American market every year. It is quite a projection since last year’s version of was only able to rack up 1,463 sales.
The A7 is expected to debut in Geneva this March and will also roll out this year. A new generation of A6 is expected to be produced by 2012.
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