Chinese car market has great potential: Audi CEO

An Audi h-tron Quattro concept car is displayed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan Jan 11, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

INGOLSTADT - China has great potential for the Audi brand, CEO of German automaker Audi Rupert Stadler said here on Thursday during an annual press conference.

"China is and will continue to be a very solid growth market in the long term- with great potential for the Audi brand," Stadler said.

"Our Chinese product portfolio is about to go through a broad-based generation change. By this summer, we will replace models that make up 60 percent of our unit sales in that market," Stadler added.

According to him, the company has multiplied its sales seven-fold since 2006 in China. With more than 570,000 automobiles delivered in 2015, Audi continues to achieve very high sales on the Chinese market.

Compared with 2014, Audi announced that its worldwide deliveries increased by 3.6 percent to around 1.8 million automobiles, and that it also achieved a new record for revenue, posting a figure of 58.4 billion euros ($63.7 billion).

Referring to the investment plan in 2016, Stadler said Audi will invest more than 3 billion euros for the mobility of tomorrow and push forward with the electrification and digitization of Audi products.

In order to gain more new customers and continue along its growth path this year, Audi announced it would provide more than 20 new or revised models.

In addition, Stadler also apologized for the diesel scandal. "We regret what happened. We will ensure full transparency and assure you that we will put things right."