Ambitious Audi ready to unleash more new models on SA

Audi South Africa is on an ambitious drive to have the youngest model range in the premium market across all segments before the end of the year.

On the back of unleashing all of 15 high-performance models last month, Audi yesterday confirmed that it plans to launch another four updated models in the coming months.

First up will be the facelift Q2 next month, before the new generation A3 is rolled out in August, the facelift Q5 in September followed by the introduction of the first ever Q5 Sportback in November. Ingolstadt’s first fully electric vehicle, the e-tron, is set to finally make its local debut in 2022.

In the process of refreshing its model range, Audi hopes to further grow its share of the local premium market. The German carmaker yesterday announced that its premium market share in South Africa in the first quarter of 2021 is 1.6% up from last year’s 19.8%.

On a global scale, Audi has recovered very quickly from the turbulent times in 2020. The 630 000 cars it has sold worldwide this year is a 45% increase compared to the same period last year.

“Even though we are ahead of our forecasted plan for 2021 at this stage, it’s not all plain sailing. We do a few challenges still to overcome in 2021,” said Asif Hoosen, Head of Sales, Operations and Volume Planning, on Tuesday.

“There are low levels of supply from Europe. Almost every week there is a shortage of some part, while we have not been spared the worldwide shortage of the semiconductor chips. Especially our performances models, which uses lots of technologies under their skin.

“We are also experiencing product gaps, where the “run out” we had is basically sold out ahead of the arrival of the new stock like in the case of the new A3. But hopefully the arrival of the Q2 can somewhat help balance out the offset,” said Hoosen.

Details around the introduction of the e-tron are still being finalised, but Audi is confident it will happen in 2022.

“Our planning around electrification is so advanced at this stage that we have weekly meetings and discussion around the readiness for the e-tron. These are exciting times we are part of and we are committed to electric mobility in South Africa,” concluded Hoosen.

Audi has also enhanced its drive to digitalisation through a new car stock locator. This online experience will include a search function, vehicle images, an overview of specifications, retail price and a link to an instalment calculator.

In addition, the carmaker has also opened Audi City in Cape Town which it says is a first for Africa. It features what it calls an innovative sales format and showroom at the V&A Waterfront.