mikeavelli
Moderator
- Messages
- 6,807
- Reactions
- 15,217
Audi's roll in the states continues, passing 200k cars for the first time here and it beat their goal by 3 years. Good read on the Presidents thoughts.
View gallery
.
(Audi)
Audi had a banner year last year.
The German automaker sold more than 200,000 cars in the US for the first time in its history — reaching this milestone three years ahead of schedule.
Audi's surging sales were led by the strong performance of its A3 compact sedan, as well as the Q3 and Q5 crossover SUVs.
Leading the charge for the company is Audi of America president Scott Keogh.
The 46-year-old from Long Island, New York, has been Audi's top man in the US for more than three years, in which time the company has experienced record growth.
Keogh sat down with Business Insider at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. We talked about everything from the prospect for a slowdown in US sales, to plans to launch an electric SUV, and parent company Volkswagen's emissions scandal.
On the US auto market in 2016:
The auto industry in the US, as a whole, had a banner year in 2015, with 17.5 million automobiles rolling out of dealer showrooms — a feat that had never been accomplished before.
"Looking at the macro view of the American car market, I think it's still good," Keogh said. "Fuel prices and interest rates, while climbing, are still extremely low, and if you look at the age of most fleets out there you are still looking at a 10- to 11-year-old vehicle population, so there will room for movement there."
However, the Audi executive a cautioned that despite its strong performance in 2015, the industry will likely see growth rates slow down.
"I think we should not be naive, though," Keogh said. "The market just broke a record for sales and I don't think we are going to see the type of growth rates we've been seeing."
"Since the market hit rock bottom in 2008-2009, we've seen these great growth rates," he added. "There's no way that's going to continue when the market is already at 17.5 million cars."
View gallery
.
(Audi)
Audi RS7.
Furthermore, he added, that Audi has taken a different approach to its high-performance brand than their German counterparts in that the company has spent much more time delivering racing success and not enough time capitalizing on the commercial aspects of the racing image.
"We spent so much on the authenticity of Audi Sports and the racing of Audi Sport that we forgot to commercialize Audi Sport and take advantage of the success we've had," Keogh said. "Our competitors have done a smart job of putting more focus into turning out more M cars and AMGs."
With that said, Audi's racing success, which includes more than a dozen victories since 2000 at the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance sports-cars race, will mean the company won't be lacking for credibility.
