‘GIVE US TAX SOPS FOR 3-5 YEARS TO PROMOTE LOCALISATION OF EVs'

IN CONVERSATION: The Indian arm of German carmaker Audi India reported a 101 per cent growth in sales for the calendar year 2021. Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head of Audi India tells ASHISH SINHA of BW Businessworld on how the support from government via tax-breaks can help Audi HQ pump in fresh investments and much more. Excerpts:

- ASHISH SINHA

Why did Audi India launch nine products in 2021 despite the Covid-19 threat?

Last year was a good year for Audi India. Yes, we launched nine new products in 2021. It was part of our India strategy which focuses on four key pillars of strength — Customer Centricity, Products, Network and Digitalization. We laid emphasis on each of these pillars in 2021 and will continue this in 2022. While we do not share a break up of our sales data; we are happy to report that we had grown over a 100 per cent in 2021. We expect this growth to continue. However, a lot of this will also depend on the situation related to the semiconductor shortage and also, the Omicron variant. Despite hitting roadblocks posed by the unfortunate second wave of the pandemic and other global issues like semiconductor shortage, increased commodity prices, shipment challengers, etc., we did well in 2021. At over 101 per cent, our sales more than doubled compared to 2020. In 2021 we entered the Indian EV market as well with five electric cars launches. We are currently the only brand to have five electric cars on offer.

How has been the company’s transition from diesel/petrol to petrol and EV portfolio?

We moved away from diesel early on and the transition from diesel to petrol only was definitely a bold move. As a brand, we have seen the customer preference change over the last few years. Customers today know the benefits of driving petrol and electric cars. Any strategy takes a fair amount of time to yield great results. We have been overwhelmed by the number of customers who have moved to petrol cars. There is no denying that we may not be able to convert a few handful customers whose preference is still diesel. Currently our petrol and EV portfolio is seeing strong growth and this will continue as we move forward.