German premium car maker, Audi, could open its first showroom in the city in a few months' time.
Afer its group brands Volkswagen and Skoda opened dealerships recently in Kolkata, the Audi dealership got stuck in financial hurdles. The Bagarias of Imperial Auto that has Honda Siel Cars dealership here in the city had initially partnered with Audi to come up with a showroom here. A showroom was planned at Tagore Park on the Eastern Metropolitan By-pass.
An Audi spokesperson confirmed that the Bagarias had backed out citing financial reasons. She added that the company would make an announcement of a partner in the next two weeks and the showroom could come up within a few months.
Audi currently has eleven dealerships in the country including cities like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai and Pune. It plans to have around 14 dealerships across India by the year-end. Apart from the Kolkata showroom, two more will come up at Jaipur and Lucknow.
The Audi showroom was supposed to have 6,000square feet floor space and showcase the entire Audi line-up, A4, A6, A8 sedans, the Q7 SUV and the sports car TT Coupe, prices for which range from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1.25 crore. It recently launched the Audi Q5 in its existing dealerships in the city.