Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head of Audi India, speaks about the company’s electric vehicle and used car strategy in India in an interview with TNIE.
You recently opened a used Audi store - what’s the outlook for that part of the business in luxury cars?
Audi India’s pre-owned car business has consistently grown and continues to be an important part of our overall business strategy. We believe it is going to be one of the major growth drivers for us in the future as we have a clear focus on selling every car twice.
We are currently expanding our Audi Approved: plus showroom network with a series of inaugurations. We started 2021 with seven Audi Approved: plus facilities and currently stand at fourteen, including recently inaugurated facilities in Ahmedabad, Nashik, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Surat and Mumbai (South). We will further expand Audi Approved: plus facilities beyond 20 this year.
Q7 has just been launched, and in a world where electric and carbon footprints are the buzz, will you have a similar electric version out soon?
We recently launched Audi Q7 as a petrol-only variant with mild-hybrid technology in the country and we are aligned with Audi’s focus to shift towards electrification by 2033. In 2021, we launched five electric cars under the e-tron brand between July - August 2021. Not only did we launch these cars but also created an ecosystem for our customers.
How do you foresee the luxury car market sales-wise this year?
The luxury car market is showing encouraging signs and we believe that pace will pick- up in the months ahead. It is important to note that the luxury segment has remained less than 2% of the overall passenger vehicle vertical and has great potential for growth provided we have a stable policy regime and reasonable duties / tax structure.
Your EV strategy seems to be pretty aggressive. How many you have in the line-up and what percent is that of your line-up?
We are a brand with the widest EV range on offer in India - our Audi e-tron 50, Audi e- tron 55, Audi e-tron Sportback 55,Audi e-tron GT and Audi RS e-tron GT have received a fantastic response with the first batch of cars being sold ours within days. We have a strong order bank for 2022 and this reiterates the strong demand for EV’s in India. As a brand, we are targeting 15% of our sales to come from EV’s by 2025. Our goal is to move towards complete electrification by 2033.