German luxury car maker Audi is mulling increasing the capacity of its Aurangabad plant this year owing to huge demand, a company official said today.
The company currently has a manufacturing facility at Aurangabad for assembling its A6, A4 and Q5 models in the country. Besides, Audi India imports "niche" products like the Audi A8, R8 and SUV Q7 from Germany.
Audi India began its local production for assembling its cars in India towards the end of 2007. Last year, the company began its second shift operations at the facility. The capacity of the plant is around 3,000 units.
"We have enough capacity at our plant... We plan to increase (the capacity)," Audi India Marketing-Head Clemens Ollmert said to a query on whether the company would increase its plant capacity.
According to him, the car major sold 3,003 units last year and has set a target of retailing 4,500 units this year.
Company officials said their present facility was sufficient to increase the production. "It is a breathing plant... We have enough space to increase the capacity," the official told PTI.
On their future plans, he said they were witnessing a 50% growth last month and hoped to maintain the same this year too. "We are witnessing huge demand for our products worldwide," Ollmert said.
Bollywood Actress and Model Yana Gupta along with Ollmert unveiled the new hi-end luxury sedan Audi A8 L powered with a 4.2 FSI V8 engine in the Tamil Nadu market. The car is retailed at Chennai ex-showroom price of Rs 89 lakh.
In January 2010, Audi India sold 480 units up by 57% as against 306 units sold in the same month of last year. At present, Audi retails Audi A4, A6, Q5, Q7, Audi TT and the sports car Audi R8 in India.
