Audi Australia’s new boss remains committed to the traditional sedan despite SUVs now accounting for over 70 per cent of the brand’s sales locally.
The local arm of German car maker, Audi, remains committed to the traditional sedan, despite declining sales in the face of an SUV onslaught.
New Audi Australia boss Jeff Mannering, who was appointed to the top job in June, cited the recently-launched Audi A3 range – which includes sedan body styles – as proof of the brand’s ongoing commitment to traditional four-door cars.
“Australians love their SUVs – and their utes as well, not that we’re bringing a ute – but sedans are important [to Audi],” Mannering told Drive at the recent launch of the brand’s SQ7 and SQ8 performance SUVs.
“We just we just went back into the A segment [small cars] with the [new A3] which is an important segment for us, [both in] sedan (pictured below) and hatchback.”
Sales of Audi sedans have been in decline for years as the German brand has introduced a range of high-riding SUVs that have proven popular with buyers.
The Audi A4 sedan, once a mainstay of Audi’s line-up, accounted for around half of the brand’s sales in Australia as recently as 2005 when buyers snapped up 2417 A4s from a total of 4808 new Audis reported as sold.
In 2006, Audi introduced its first SUV into Australia, the large-sized Q7. The same year, the A4 sedan accounted for only a third of the brand’s sales locally as buyers began the migration towards SUVs.
Fast forward to 2013 when Audi sold 2488 of its mid-sized A4, or around 15 per cent of total sales while the German brand’s line-up of SUVs, now including the Q3, Q5, and Q7, accounted for 7393 sales, or just under half of the 16,009 total.
This year so far (to the end of October), A4 sales (387) account for just three per cent of Audi’s total sales (10,529) while SUVs (7425 sales) have accounted for around 70 per cent of the brand’s total.
Yet, despite the changing tastes of buyers in Australia, Mannering has no intention of transitioning to an SUV-only brand in Australia.
“I think there is a place for sedans,” he stated and when pressed if Audi’s range of sedans is safe for now, he signed off with an emphatic ‘Yep!”
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