Success Begets Success: The Audi Strategy

Audi is determined to become the number one luxury automaker in the world in terms of volume. Why the frenzied quest to climb to the top of the table?

Well, national pride for one. Superseding its compatriots from Munich and Stuttgart is no mean feat. But, you have to think that there’s a more pragmatic incentive. The motive has to be rooted in enhancing shareholder value somehow – in this case, value to the VW Group, which owns 99.5% of Audi.

You see, the more cars that you see on the road with the now distinctive Audi LED’s, the more inclined you’ll be to join the club. Or at least that’s the rationale. After all, success breeds success. It’s a cautious path to tread though. Ferrari recently announced that they would no longer produce more than 7,000 cars a year to ensure that the Prancing Horse remains exclusive, and it’s well-heeled buyers stay safe in the knowledge that their cars will hold their (considerably high) value – thanks to restricted supply.

And while dealer incentives the world over (and certainly in India) have definitely helped Audi ascend the sales charts, any sustained climb to the top of a merciless space like the automotive industry requires true substance.

And, frankly, I’m not sure I understood exactly what this substance was until very recently. Sure, their cars are cutting edge, the interiors are second to none, and they live up to their tag line – Vorsprung durch Technik (Advancement through Technology). But what does that really mean?

Well, I’ll tell you. This past month, we spent an entire day with the Audi R8 V10. Now, we’ve spent time with the R8 in various guises on a number of occasions before – but this time was different. We set out to see if a supercar could withstand the daily grind – accentuated by rush hour in the National Capital in the depths of a (thus far) pretty miserable summer. It’s safe to say that the R8 shrugged off this assignment as child’s play. We then took it to the Yamuna Expressway, where it’s the first supercar in which I was comfortable engaging cruise control.

But then the R8 demonstrated its true breath of capability by transforming itself from a cruiser to a proper ‘racer’ on track. And I’m not using that term lightly. Many production cars put on racing stripes – only to run out of steam after a few short laps. But the R8 kept running relentlessly, despite a track temperature of 60-degrees C. And, yes, it was a precision instrument with tremendous limits – as you would expect with all-wheel drive. Plus, it was as powerful as a sledgehammer. But it was also delicate, approachable, and accommodating. And that’s a fine balance to achieve.

But, what clinched it for me – and this is a strange one – is the precision with which the windows went up and down. Peculiar perhaps, but important all the same! And that’s because it points to the fact that there is, in fact, substance behind those blinding LED’s. It demonstrates an embodiment of its ethos. The Devil is in the details after all. It’s the small things that make all the difference.