Audi has lost the number two spot in the Indian market to BMW. Audi sales have crashed by over 30% last year. BMW on the other hand has registered a growth of 14%. Top dog is still Mercedes-Benz keeping the top spot after selling 13,231 units last year.
Audi’s sales have fallen in the first quarter this year as well (January-March 2017) The car maker has shifted 2,131 units as compared to 2,738 units during the same period last year.
Audi India head Rahil Ansari admitted that 2016 has been a “challenging year” for the company.
“Although 2016 was a challenging year in general for the industry we utilized this period to consolidate our business in India,” Ansari said, adding that, “We do not discuss our sales data in media. However, we can confirm that we had a good start to the year (2017). We are ahead of our planned targets and expect to close the year with double-digit growth.”
Rahil Ansari replaced Joe King as Audi India’s head in February this year as King returned back to the company’s headquarters in Germany.
Sources have said that Audi has seen the slide in volumes as worrisome as they were the number one luxury car maker in India a couple of years ago.
BMW’s fortunes are slowly turning around, making a comeback in 2016. Frank Schloeder who was the acting president of the BMW Group India said, ” “2016 has not been an easy year for the automotive industry and that applies equally to BMW Group India… Despite a challenging business environment, BMW Group India has increased sales and market share,”
