Audi Starts Production in India

300 A6's in 1 year? that has to be the worst productivity and return on investment i have ever heard of. Are they building these cars with hammers and chissels from a raw block of aluminum?

Oh and thank god they are only for the indian market. If i paid 70,000$ for an A6 and the door sticker said Made in India i wouldnt take it from the dealer, no thanks i'll wait till you bring me a german one.

if they are only making 300 A6's why don't they make a few R8's to make money because they also said they are going to invest 10.6 billion so it's a waste of money making cars in india, because who's going to buy them.

Hi, For the above 3 posters without offence firstly, Im from india and now the clear picture. 1. They are investing only 30 Million in India till the year 2015 2. They have been selling cars as imports since 3 years and since that attracts about 127% Import duty they only plan to assemble these units not really make them here. It's more like the entire thing comes ready made and they just attach a few bits including seats / wheels / doors etc it isnt really made in India 4. They do sell other audi's / luxury cars and they sell quite a few we've had 10+ Rolls Royce Phantoms sold in India last year and while we are a country that is still in it's infant stages you will see how we are till 2015. And finally Audi is investing peanuts compared to Mercedes or BMW who already have a huge plant up and running and Mercedes is building a second plant and not too sure but I believe since last 4 years India is the only country outside Germany where the S class is made and believe me you might want to check the cars out you will be hard shocked at how good they are. All AUDI has done till now is opened a few dealers and closed a few and re opened a few and even this production is done at their existing SKODA plant it's not entirely a new plant that they have invested in Sorry for this long note just thought i'd enlighten :)

nice comment! Finally someone who talks about facts ;)

Oh i am sure that india is an economically and financially growing country dont get me wrong. It comes down to how much faith i have in indian made products quality wise, i'm sure they are decent but not 70,000$ decent. And even if they were the exact same quality as german made vehicles i am european and much rather give $ back to my economy than india. No offence but thats just the way i see it.

Hi, i'll give you some information which I'm not 100% accurate on but a lot of internal parts in Mercedes including a lot of software is outsourced from India. I know a lot of rubber parts are made in a factory in north India and a few others. But Yes you are absolutely correct MADE IN GERMANY is significant to quality and we absolutely adore it in India. Infact that is the reason why Mercedes / BMW / Audi dont atchually manufacture here it's only the assembly line so it atchually is more like you will see a label which says ASSEMBLED IN INDIA rather then made in india :) And 100% agree with you on the comment about giving money back to your own country :) wish we had more people in my country who thought like you. I just gave the above post to let you know how much European quality means in India it's #1 on our lists :) I mean it and believe me we'll never try to 1up it all we'd do is tackle a way around in which the 70,000 USD price tag can be bought down to a realistic level by changing a few basics and it ends up making a huge difference. Once again no offence to anyone :)

Mercedes Benz's plant in Pune, India has been winning their presitious award of best assembly unit outside Germany for the past 4 years continuesly!! i guess that should speak enough of India's progress in building 70,000$ cars!! 8) n i guess why u guys have such a biase against India!! :O i wont blanme u guys as a whole, ur media always shows us an impoverished country!! n please.. in the future, please dont be surprised, if India is known as the world IT hub or world auto hub.. coz, now we r here to stay!! 8)

Mercedes Benz also assembles their C class vehicles in South Africa, where costs can be cut quite dramaticaly...cheaper labour as I'm sure we're all aware. These vehicles then get exported to Australasia and other parts of Africa, not to mention South Africa itself. They are simply assembled and not manufatured in these countries and are still run by Germany, ie. German staff and regulations, other than the labour. Hope this makes sense? :-)

That's awesome, funny I don't hear some people complaining that a lot of VW's are assembled in Mexico. =) Anyways, that's great news in a way and a little off topic, but I'm kind of glad that Tata bought Land Rover and Jaguar off of Ford. Hopefully now they can return to glory or atleast up the reliability and quality in their cars. I have faith in the India based company.

Well I see no point in this arguement. Its quite futile. India is an emerging economy and it will hopefully see much more growth in the future. As far as I see this, this is only the beginning. Most of the luxury/non lux car brands, in the next few years will shift their manufacturing hubs to India and China due the availability of cheap and skilled labor. So everyone would have no choice but to pump their money back to India and China.

True, but thats in the near future. However later it will be a different story. With the changing demographics, in the future the EU and North America will have much fewer people able to work due to population ageing/greying. The median age in the US is 35.3 years old & EU's is 37.7 years old and this will shift to a whopping 52.3 years old in 2040 where as India and China are at an advantage with a young and talented population. The median age being 24-25 years old. Ultimately a large number of processes will have to be outsourced to India and China.

I wouldn't buy an AUDI if it came from India. I hope they don't plan on exporting it to other countries because it would really affect its prestige. No offense to anyone here from India.

They are just being assembled in India. The parts are from Germany.

there are vw's, bmw's and mercedes that are built in china and vietnam for their own market, but even their own people perfer to buy cars built in germany.

So how long it would take to start manufacturing in India itself instead of just assembling?