Audi's Decline in India

dhruvtalksstech
Jan 31, 2023
5 min read

There was once a time when people used to go crazy for Audis in India. This was sometime in the early 2010s. But since 2016, Audi's situation in India has been grim. It no longer carries the prestige it once used and although it is still considered an expensive luxury car, people have a liking towards BMW and Mercedes. It is partially because of the fact Audis do not sell very well in India anymore. Mercedes has a 42% share in the Indian luxury car market, BMW (31%), and Audi lags significantly behind at just 12%. This tiny share is despite the fact that Audi has performed comparatively very well in the last 2 years than in the 4 years before 2020. Audi followed the perfect recipe that would ensure its ouster from the Indian car market in spectacular fashion.

Following VW's diesel emission scandal, the whole VW group sought to rehabilitate its image and did so by phasing out diesel engines from all of its cars all around the world. Since VW owns Audi, it fell prey to this new move. Most luxury cars sold in India have diesel engines and buyers prefer diesel overall. Switching to petrol meant that Audi had wiped out a sizeable portion of buyers in one clean sweep. It switched its whole lineup to petrol and that had reverberating effects throughout the car industry. Audi was already struggling with sales and marketing and the number of cars being sold every year was dwindling rapidly. That is why they ceased production of some models in India because of skewed demand and instead relied on imports for cars like the A8L.

This made matters so much worse as this resulted in a huge price hike. At least a 10-15% hike was witnessed and it translates to lakhs of rupees since we are talking about a luxury car that costs crores. This further resulted in a diminished demand. So much so that I have never seen the new A8L even in rich cities like New Delhi even at the finest hotels where the rich and famous descend frequently. The 7 Series and S-Class though, are common sights there. Because of rising input costs, strengthening dollar, shortage of semiconductor chips, and stagflation, it was a perfect mix for people to cut down on luxury expenses and scale back spending in general. Audi also considerably shrank its portfolio and there was a time when there were just 4 models on sale in India.

This did not come at the right time for Audi and it really felt the heat when pressure was mounting on from every side to turn around the company. Audi was always late to every segment, its launches were often delayed by months and even years and it took forever to roll out new and exciting updates, no advertisements and banners also meant that public outreach and fan-following had become a thing of the past for Audi India. The A8L facelift, for example, arrived in India 2.5 years after its international debut. The facelifts for other cars did not bring anything majorly new and were instead launched with a hefty price hike. The technology inside Audi was once considered to be cutting-edge but was now seriously lagging behind its competitors'.

Audi's infotainment screens were small and difficult to use on cheaper models like the A4 and Q2. On higher-end models like the A8L, A6, and Q8, the dual touchscreen system was incredibly difficult and potentially dangerous to use on the go because it required taking eyes off the road. For a 50-year-old millionaire buying a luxury car, tech is already not his cup of tea, and instead preferred something more usable like the infotainment system in BMW. Audi also stripped off a lot of comfort features from its cars such as the air suspension from the A6 which was its selling point leading to Audi losing its essence as a luxury car brand. The design was recycled and Audi's design language is considered very unexciting in a world where BMW is being really aggressive with its body language.

They also made some pretty bad choices with the models such as the Q2, RS7, and the E-Tron Sportback. The Q2 is such a horrible car that I would rather go for the Creta if given a choice between the two. The final nail in the coffin was increasing pressure from world governments to make cars go electric. Luxury car owners were already pretty committed to diesel and going completely electric came as a shock to many. Out of the 15 models in its lineup today, 3 are electric cars that do not sell more than a few units a year due to the exorbitant price. The cheapest electric is the E-Tron for a mere 1.1 Cr and 1.8 Cr for the E-Tron GT. Luxury car buyers don't want any inconvenience because it is against the very purpose of luxury cars.

Instead of enjoying a relaxed ride in the back, owners will have to worry about battery capacity and range all the time. What is the point of an electric car worth more than a luxury home that cannot go beyond 400 km on a single charge? Instead of focusing on models that sell in high numbers like the A3, Audi is focusing on niche cars. Maybe that is why Audi is a niche brand and at the bottom of my list if I were to ever buy a luxury car. Audis have unexciting interiors that are not wrapped in leather even for expensive models like the Q5. There is no car that can rival the 6GT and the E-Class. The Q7 has got a new face but is 6 years old underneath and the same can be said for almost all cars in the lineup.

Impractical cars like the Q8 are meant for buyers who have a little too much to splurge. The options list is never-ending and some of the most basic features that were earlier standard are now add-on options for a hefty price. Audi also ranks the lowest when it comes to reliability out of all major luxury car brands. That is not a good sign when one service of the car can easily cost upwards of 40,000Rs. There is a very famous saying in India that luxury cars are like white elephants. For those of you who do not what I white elephant is, a white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. I would rather buy a Jag or a Volvo at this point, I believe.