Audi Group of America Inc. is going to push into the US luxury market in the year 2011. Their A8 model which is part of the top end car from the company is the flag bearer of this thought process to be followed up by the A6 and A7 in the Phase Two of the brand development process by Audi in America. The smallest model from Audi, the Q3 though seems to be back in contention for a release in the US on the back of a healthy growth of 23.3 percent recorded by the entire segment in 2010, this after it Audi officials had decided against its release in that country. The A1 model from Audi also has better chances of joining up with the Audi lineup in the US market.
As per Johan De Nysschen, President Audi Group of America Inc.’s people would have to wait for the next generation models to come up where one would get more diesel variants. Audi had sold a record number of 1,092,400 vehicles worldwide in 2010 which included an all time high record of 101,629 in the U.S. They hope to continue with the positive sales trend in this year as well.
For the long term forecast, the company plans to sell 200,000 units in the US market in the year 2018. This is about twice the number of vehicles that they have sold last year. They also aim to sell 1.5 million cars worldwide to become the top luxury car seller. For the year 2011 they intend to sell 1.2 million units globally and to double their sale figures in the US market. As per De Nysschen, Audi has been successful in garnering the interest of more affluent Americans and this has been possible due to the stupendous success of the A8 model which Audi had introduced last year.
Source: 4wheelnews
