Audi

• Source: CCTV.com
• [11:03 July 28 2009]
• Comments

German luxury carmaker Audi AG, owned by Volkswagen Group, plans to open a new 100,000-vehicle assemble plant in September in China to meet growing demand in the world's biggest auto market.

The 1 billion yuan plant in the northeastern city of Changchun will double Audi's production capacity to 200,000 units a year, according to Zhang Xiaojun, executive deputy general manager of the Audi Sales Division at Sino-German car joint venture FAW Volkswagen Automobile Co Ltd.

In an interview with China Daily, Zhang said "the new factory is Audi's optimum assembly plant globally which in theory will be able to produce all Audi models".

The first two models to roll off the new assembly line will be the Audi A4L sedan and Q5 SUV, he said.

The A4L is now made at an existing 100,000-unit factory in Changchun that also produces the Audi A6L sedan. Production of the Q5 will begin at its new plant at the end of this year.

The new facility is seen as a strategic move by Audi, the biggest premium carmaker in China, to meet its sales target of 200,000 vehicles annually by 2015. It sold nearly 120,000 vehicles last year.

Audi's sales in its No 2 global market for the first half of 2009 grew by 10.4 percent from a year ago to 66,131 vehicles, some 42 percent of sales in China's luxury vehicle segment. Its market share is much larger than German rivals BMW, which has 23 percent, and Mercedes-Benz at 17 percent.