Audi forecasts 2017 sales in China to reach approximately 600,000 units

Shanghai(Gasgoo)-Audi predicted that it will see robust sales growth in November and December, which will reverse a year-on-year sales decline of 3% in the previous ten months. Joachim Wedler, President of Audi China, expected that Audi will gain a single-digit percentage rise in full-year volumes in China.
Joachim Wedler stated that Audi will be revived though it had some challenges in the first five months. Sales of Audi reached 585,000 units in China last year, and it is expected to reach approximately 600,000 units by the end of 2017. But Joachim Wedler declined to reveal a specific sales forecast for 2018, but said that the high-end vehicle market may undergo a single-digit growth, and that Audi will not drag down the average growth rate.
Audi suffered sales slump earlier this year in China mainly due to Audi's establishment of a second JV with SAIC Group, which worsened the relationships with its existing dealers. According to industry insiders, the move infuriated Audi's existing dealers, which mainly sell vehicles jointly manufactured by its JV with FAW. To protest, the existing dealers stopped stocking, greatly decreasing Audi's sales in China, experts said.
According to Yale Zhang, managing director of consultancy Automotive Foresight, another important reason that decreased Audi sales is the Audi A6, which is too old-fashioned to compete with the new Mercedes-Benz and the BMW 5 Series. Fortunately, Audi had signed agreements with the dealers in May, and their relationships has revovered since then, Joachim Wedler added. Moreover, Audi has been redesigning the Audi A6, and planned to launch the new model in 2018. But it declined to expose when it might hit the Chinese market. In addition, Audi plans to launch five locally-produced NEV models over the next few years.
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