We all know Audi has long been regarded as the "other" German brand of the big three. BMW and Mercedes are the well known nameplates in the United States. However, take a trip over to Europe and what do you see? Audi is outselling BMW in Germany. Audi's sales, profits and other key financial numbers have all been rocketing up.
Audi's ability to offer smaller engines combined with their increased attention to detail has made the brand highly sought after in Europe. Higher prices as of late as witnessed with the A5 starting at $40K, the new A4 expected to start at the same prices as a Mercedes C-class, the RS6 likely to be north of $95K and the R8 at $110K means Audi buyers are not the ones who can't afford the BMW or Mercedes.
We all know Audi's sales in the United States are a disaster. Lexus outsells Audi by more than 300,000 cars annually and BMW also makes a mockery out of Audi's sales in the U.S.
However, things might be changing in the near future. China is expected to become the world's largest car market by 2015. In China, Audi is clearly the best selling premium luxury brand well ahead of BMW and Mercedes in sales.
Audi has posted their 11th consecutive sales increase in 2006 and is forecasted to sell roughly 1 million cars in 2008. Audi has packed their new cars such as the A4 full of technology, improved the reliability immensely and they even have plans to ramp up production of their RS models.
The RS4 was a revelation for high-performance Audis. The R8 is truly Audi's ultimate execution as it has taken down Porsche's iconic 911 in over 6 different comparison tests. With the RS6 loaded with 580 horsepower and 479 lb/ft of torque and an RS5 along with 350 horsepower TT-RS waiting for confirmation from Audi bosses...Audi is jumping head first into the high-performance stakes. If the RS4 and especially R8 are any indication, Audi will be making quite a splash in the high-performance arena.
In the wings is a Mercedes CLS competitor dubbed the A7 and a smaller version of the Q7 named the Q5 which will be set to compete with the BMW X3.
With a great following in Europe and a strongold on the Chinese market combined with Audi's plans to offer more than just one RS model at a time within the next three years do you think Audi's goals to become the world's leading premium manufactuer by 2015 are going to be a fact or just fiction?