Audi India Sales Drop 18 per cent In 2018

While the luxury car market in India is booming, not all luxury automakers seem to have it easy. While Mercedes-Benz and BMW have had a great run in 2018 in India, their arch-rival Audi has been hit by low sales volumes. Audi India sales dropped a significant 18 per cent in 2018 as compared to the previous year. Audi India's total sales figures in 2018 stood at 6,463 units as compared to 7,.876 units the year before. This was mainly due to the fact that Audi India has just one major launch in the whole year, the midsize luxury SUV Q5 as compared to the other automakers that brought in updates and refreshes across the board.

While other luxury automakers also had significant introductions in the performance car space, Audi India launched just the one - the RS5 in India in 2018. Other launches from Audi India included the Audi Q3 and Q7 'Design Edition'.

Commenting on sales for 2018, Rahil Ansari, Head, Audi India said, "The year 2018 has been surely a challenging one for the automotive industry in India, especially in the second half of the year. The luxury segment was under pressure owing to financial market development, the changing customer sentiment and other reasons such as changes in policies with regards to taxes. We at Audi India faced some unforeseen business challenges during the year, which led to reduced deliveries in the year 2018. However, even in a difficult year, we managed to consolidate out the position in the marker earning a profitable growth for our dealer partners."

That said, 2019 promises to be a better year for the luxury automaker with a range of launches planned across the board. The automaker will bring in its long-awaited Audi A8 luxury sedan to take on the likes of the BMW 7 Series and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class along with the equivalent Audi Q8 luxury flagship SUV too. The automaker will also bring to India the updated version of the Audi R8 supercar. Audi will also launch other lifestyle coupe SUVs in India such as the Q4 along with the popular A6 sedan.