Slow market paralyses Audi sales, firm plans to halt future investments in India

The automobile market in India is witnessing a fall in the number of cars being sold and the most affected of all is the luxury carmaker Audi. The German auto company has put its further investments in the country on hold due to the fluctuations in the market.

Rahil Ansari, head of Audi India told Economic Times that the investments in the country are not confirmed at the moment as any decision would be taken on the basis of how the market develops, during the inauguration of a sales outlet in Gurgaon. He also mentioned that last year the company sold 6,463 units which don't justify the idea of making commitments of investing in the country in the future, said Ansari.

The company, however, decided upon taking a sustainable path that can bring back the overall volume of sales to 10,000 units, provided the taxes and customer satisfaction see a substantial improvement. 

The slow pace of the local market may affect Audi's annual sales to see a dip in 2019. The recent inauguration of a sales outlet would help boost the demand for the luxury car among the Indian public.

To recover from this, the company will launch 10 vehicles and special edition vehicles that will contribute to more sales. During the event, Ansari admitted that he doesn't see a very positive progress for at least one year. But the company is hoping on redeeming its losses in the second half of 2019.

The idea for a proposed recovery plan is to launch more petrol, hybrid and fully electric cars as the introduction of 2020 BS-VI norms will make diesel cars costlier as the taxes levied in the norm cannot be adhered to by the manufacturer. This means the consumer would end up paying lot more than the actual price which can decline the sales of the luxury brand.

However, to give their best shot in fighting BS-VI, Audi has decided to launch the A6 and A8 sedans in the second half of this year, alongside its fully electric e-Tron which is a plan yet to work out.