Premium car brand Audi, present in Romania via Porsche Romania importer is likely to capture 37% of the premium car market this year and roughly 1%-1.2% of the overall car industry, the equivalent of 1,500 cars, said Mihai Halmagianu, brand manager of Audi.
“Audi aims at occupying 1% and 1.2% of the market his year, but the paramount goal is to take up the No1 spot in the local premium car ranking, with a market share above 37%”, Halmagianu said.
The representative of the auto brand projects the sale of nearly 1.500 cars locally, expecting the Romanian car market to stand below 150,000 mark this year. Last year, some 2,900 Audi cars were sold in Romania.
“We target 1,500 cars this year, which is an optimistic premise. We expect the decrease pace to slow down after the softening of lending conditions and improvement of the political and economic conditions. The overall car industry will stand below 150,000 cars sold this year”, Halmagianu added.
In Romania, Audi holds 14 retail units and 20 repair units. “We intend to open this year 5 new branches in Constanta, Craiova, Timisoara and Bucharest”, Halmagianu stated.
“The minimum number of Audi cars exhibited in showroom in 2015 is 12. Currently, the minimum number of cars is around 3-4.”
Audi will deliver this year in Romania the facelifted version of Q7 in summer and A5 Sportback in fourth quarter.
The German carmaker aims at having over 40 models and derivates by 2015. Audi will spend up to 2 bln euros annually in research and development.
