German luxury car manufacturer Audi is looking to enhance its presence in India through a fresh round of investments.
“Right now, we are looking at another 5-10 year investment plan. For this, we would consider Aurangabad and Pune,” Audi India-Head Michael Perschke told Business Line in an interview.
Audi is part of Germany’s Volkswagen AG, which has manufacturing plants in Aurangabad and Pune.
Though a final decision is yet to be taken, the additional investments may go towards sprucing up capacity and launch of new models. However, Perschke did not divulge any specifics.
Audi had committed to invest €30 million in India when it set up operations in 2007. It has to “a large extent exhausted” that amount, Perschke said.
The facility at Chakan, Pune, manufactures mass market models and has a common platform for Volkswagen and Skoda. The group company Skoda’s plant in Aurangabad assembles top-end models such as Skoda’s Superb and Laura, Volkswagen’s Jetta and Passat and Audi’s A4, A6, Q5 and Q7.
Higher sales
The company, which considers India to be one of its top 10 markets in the world, expects to sell more cars in the country than in Japan by 2020.
Audi, which sold 9,003 cars in India last year, expects to sell about 10,800 cars this year.
Audi, which assembles four of its total 12 vehicles sold in India from Aurangabad, intends to start assembling its sports utility vehicle Q3 at the plant by the second half of this year.
It would also look at assembling more products from this plant.
rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in