German luxury car manufacturer Audi would launch its acclaimed sports car R8 in India in October-November as it seeks to build the brand in this market, a top official of Audi India said.
"We will launch R8 in October-November in the last quarter. We already have the first order (in India)', Audi India's Vice-President marketing, Martin Birkner, told PTI in Bangalore.
Audi sold 350 cars in India 2007 calender year and has a target to nearly triple that number, mainly driven by A4 sedan that it launched in India this month.
"As we target sales of 1,000 cars in India by the end of this year, the new Audi A4 will be a crucial product to help us achieve this goal", Birkner said.
The Audi model range in India is: A8, Q7, A6, A4 and TT.
He said Audi expects to sell 1000 units of A4 in the first 12 months of its launch, indicating that the sedan would be a main driver of growth for the company in the near term.
The company sold 470 cars in the January-June period of this year and "with Audi A4 will definitely cross the 1,000-mark".
Audi builds its A6 model at its Aurangabad assembly plant on a completely knocked down unit and plans to do the same with A4, which is currently being imported, by October.
The prices of the new Audi A4 start at Rs 29 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai wihtout C.S.T., transportation etc).
According to Birkner, the company's small car A3 is not an option (launch) for India "at the moment".
Audi, which commenced business activities in India last year, is keen to build the brand in India, where the luxury car market has seen rapid growth, particularly in the April-June quarter.
"We have more or less launched the brand in India last year", he said. "We have to build up the brand and we would like to push the brand (in India)".
Audi currently has seven exclusive dealerships in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Five new dealerships would come up in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata and Ludhiana by year-end, Birkner said.
