Photo: Audi india
The cool down in auto sales that is being recorded in China as we speak was bound to make some casualties at one point and it seems like the first one to pay for it is Dietmar Voggenreiter. It’s ok if the name doesn’t ring a bell, the man was Audi’s sales chief up until not long ago.
According to Automotive News Europe, the Ingolstadt-based company decided to sack the man on account of the poor results recorded in the world’s biggest auto market. However, the move isn’t immediate, as Voggenreiter will leave his duties at the end of the year.
His place will be taken by Joachim Wedler, the man who is currently overseeing Audi’s strategy on model lines according to Audi Mobil, an in-house newspaper of the company.
The problem is that the four-ring brand wants to deliver 600,000 cars in China this year, a target that seems harder to hit every day, due to the slowing sales recorded during the first six months of 2015.
And that’s a stark contrast compared to the results posted last year when Audi managed to grow by a whopping 18 percent to a grand total of 578,900 units. The stock exchange drop that seeded panic amongst rich people together with the government’s crackdown on corruption are some of the factors that led to this bubble burst.
The overall auto segment is slowing down in China and the aging line-up of Audi isn’t helping either. Mercedes-Benz, for example, launched a plethora of new cars in the country and is doing better than ever, despite all the problems the Chinese are dealing with right now.
To be more precise, Audi’s sales fell 5.8 percent in June, BMW’s sales dropped 1.3 percent while Mercedes posted a record-breaking 39 percent increase.
Of course, when reached for comment, the officials from Ingolstadt claimed that this move has nothing to do with the recent results and that it was planned a long time ahead.
His place will be taken by Joachim Wedler, the man who is currently overseeing Audi’s strategy on model lines according to Audi Mobil, an in-house newspaper of the company.
The problem is that the four-ring brand wants to deliver 600,000 cars in China this year, a target that seems harder to hit every day, due to the slowing sales recorded during the first six months of 2015.
And that’s a stark contrast compared to the results posted last year when Audi managed to grow by a whopping 18 percent to a grand total of 578,900 units. The stock exchange drop that seeded panic amongst rich people together with the government’s crackdown on corruption are some of the factors that led to this bubble burst.
The overall auto segment is slowing down in China and the aging line-up of Audi isn’t helping either. Mercedes-Benz, for example, launched a plethora of new cars in the country and is doing better than ever, despite all the problems the Chinese are dealing with right now.
To be more precise, Audi’s sales fell 5.8 percent in June, BMW’s sales dropped 1.3 percent while Mercedes posted a record-breaking 39 percent increase.
Of course, when reached for comment, the officials from Ingolstadt claimed that this move has nothing to do with the recent results and that it was planned a long time ahead.
Google News