- Audi says the one-size-fits-all global car is no longer the way forward.
- Its SAIC China brand now builds models tailored only for local buyers.
- This approach also lets the company bring new models to market faster.
Audi has decided the global car is a dead idea. Building a single vehicle engineered to satisfy every market at once no longer adds up, and the company now argues the sharper play is designing separate models for its biggest markets, each shaped around what those buyers actually want.
Rouven Mohr, Audi’s chief technical officer, says no one model can win over shoppers in North America, Europe, and China all at once, which explains why the brand stood up the new AUDI marque in China with SAIC to build cars made specifically for that market. Tastes have simply drifted too far apart for a one-size answer to hold.
Read: Audi’s China Brand Is Cutting Prices And Losing Sales, So It’s Building A Sporty Limo
“I think the idea of the global car – so one car that fits the world – this is gone, to be honest, because it’s not fitting anymore in the US (and) in China,” Mohr told Go Auto. “You need this kind of local-for-local pillar.”
In China, the AUDI brand helps meet the needs of many local consumers who want tech-focused cars akin to smartphones on wheels, while offering the most advanced self-driving systems. By comparison, buyers in Europe appreciate less emphasis on screens and like tactile controls, buttons, and switches. Despite this, Audi continues to roll out its curved digital dashboards across an increasing number of its European models.
Slashing Development Times
No longer focusing on global cars is also allowing Audi to speed up the development of its cars. The automaker says it’s now developing vehicles at “China speed” by establishing “project houses” where development teams have direct access to the board, making approvals much quicker.
This approach has already helped Audi launch the limited-run Nuvolari supercar, created as a spiritual successor to the Audi R8 and launching with the same basic twin-turbo V8 hybrid powertrain as the Lamborghini Temerario. Soon, the company’s fast new development cycles will allow it to launch a production version of the Concept C sports car, which will replace the Audi TT.
