Audi is aiming for big things in the coming months. It has already made clear to spend 24 billion Euros or US $29.24 billion and now it is planning to make an electric crossover in the US to challenge Tesla Motors.
Audi is investing big money into research and plans to invest another 24 billion Euros in the next five years. This is $2 billion more than what it had originally envisaged as it tries to edge out BMW fort the top spot in the luxury car category.
Of this ala carte for research, a major portion (70 percent of the total) will be earmarked for new models like the Q1 subcompact sport-utility vehicle, the Ingolstadt, Germany-based unit of Volkswagen AG said on Friday in a statement. Audi is targeting to sell more than 1.7 million Autos this year.
Audi chief executive officer Rupert Stadler said in the statement, “We are making large investments in the innovative areas of electric mobility, connectivity and lightweight construction.”
Audi hopes to increase its inventory to 60 models by 2020 from its present 50 models. Audi is the current No 2 in global luxury car sales and hopes to surpass BMW AG’s namesake in deliveries by the end of 2020.
The race for the top honors in the Luxury car section became keener this year with BMW out selling the Audi by just 42,600 cars in the first 11 months of this financial year. Last year it had sold 54,600 cars more than the Audi. Audi’s budget has been increased as a part of Volkswagen’s 85.6 billion-euro investment program to beat Toyota Motor Corp in global auto-industry sales. Audi hopes to spend 4.8 billion Euros a year which is a sizeable increase than the previous rolling five-year plan which envisaged investing 4.4 billion Euros annually, on new vehicles and expanding production capacity.
Chief financial officer Axel Strotbek said, “Despite the growth in total investment, we will keep a watchful eye on the upcoming challenges and exercise the required cost discipline.”
Audi has already pushed BMW to the number 2 spot in Europe and China and hopes to do the same in the US.
