Audi 2006 Annual Report Download - page 31

The Middle East, comprising countries such as Dubai, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, is a particularly lucrative
market for luxury vehicles. Many Western industrial com-
panies have already established their own subsidiaries
there amid the economic boom that is witnessing the re-
gion’s emergence as a major trading centre. Audi’s sales
strategy up until 2009 envisages considerable investment in
brand development and marketing, and the market in the
premium segment is to be conquered with models such as
the Audi Q7.
Dubai: key market
for luxury vehicles The car industry is re-
garded as the driving
force of the South
Korean economy. Over
a period of more than
50 years, with govern-
ment support, South
Korea has emerged as
the sixth-largest car
manufacturer in the
world. Including the
supply industry, the car
sector employs some 250,000 people. The sales figures for
the domestic market are stable, at around one million mostly
high-specification vehicles each year. The import share was
only four percent in 2006, but is expected to rise to between
six and seven percent in the next five years. The Audi A6 was
one of the most successful German import cars in 2006.
South Korea: impressive sales figures
쐽Five years on from
the establishment of its
own sales outlets, Audi
secured the position as
top brand in the premium
segment in 2006, with
unit sales exceeding the
10,000 mark. The Audi Q7
captured a leading
position in the luxury
SUV segment imme-
diately upon launch. Audi
now has 24 of its own
dealers and nine satellite
service workshops.
쐽Since 2005, Audi has been supplying the Middle East with
premium-segment vehicles from its own subsidiary in Dubai and as
a result has increased sales by over 50 percent within a year. The
dealer network is to be further expanded, to pave the way for sales
totalling 10,000 vehicles by 2009.
쐽Audi Korea has experienced dynamic growth since its establish-
ment in October 2004. Thanks to the radical expansion of the dealer
network and a model initiative, sales have increased more than
five-fold. The A6 has inspired this surge, accounting for 54 percent of
sales in 2006.
Russia: top of the premium segment
International markets
A review of Audi locations
PHOTOS: AUDI
29AUDI 2006 ANNUAL REPORT
The dynamism of Russia’s economic growth is
also reflected in the car market. According to
current estimates, from 2007 sales are set to
exceed 60,000 vehicles a year in the booming
premium market, with imports exceeding the
threshold of one million. Both figures will then
have doubled within the space of just two
years, providing evidence of an energetic con-
sumer climate of very high calibre. Although
the growth curve as a whole will level off some-
what in subsequent years, it is expected to
continue at an above-average rate in the luxury
segment. Audi is ideally equipped for these
challenges in an important market of the fu-
ture, thanks to its extended model range and
the new R8* in particular. The network of deal-
ers and satellite service workshops is to be
enlarged to provide almost area-wide coverage
by 2010, by which time it will extend all the way
from St. Petersburg to well into Siberia. The
establishment of the Audi Driving Experience
School in 2002 and of the Audi Akademie in
2003
has promoted the brand’s positive devel-
opment in Russia.
* fuel consumption figures at the end of the Annual Report