Audi Korea: The sales record of electric cars in Korea has decreased by 67.7% from a year prior. During the same year, the sales record of Audi electric cars increased by 51% compared to a year prior in the global market.
[Consumerwide - HueSoung Jun Reporter / Yohan Bok Reporter] Audi has proven their automation strategy by recording a 51% increase in electric car sales (global market) last year compared to a year prior. But it seems to be a different story in the domestic market. While Audi Korea's new car sales record placed third among foreign brands in Korea, its electric car sales record dropped to halfway. It shows they have been concentrating on selling fuel cars. Thus, I doubt the automation plan of Audi Korea.
Recently, Audi announced their electric car sales record from last year. The sales record of Audi cars in the global market is 1.9 million units, and electric models take 178,000 units among them, which is a 51% increase from a year prior.
Regarding the performance, Audi said, "Our automation strategy and rapidly increasing demand for electric cars resulted in this record. All our sales records in the global market have increased from a year prior, along with a high growth rate. In particular, high demand for pure electric models seems to prove the automation strategy of Audi to be consistent."
Nevertheless, incoherent with this announcement, the sales performance of Audi went downhill in the Korean market in terms of electric models. Referring to Carisyoudatalab on the 23rd of January, the total sales record of Audi Korea is 17,867 (ranking 3rd in overseas brand competition), and 899 cars were electric models last year. In 2020, Audi Korea presented an electric model for the first time in the domestic market and sold 601 units in the same year. Since then, the sales record of Audi Korea has been as follows: 2021, 1,553 units, which is a 158.4% increase from a year prior; 2022, 2,784 units, which is a 79.3% increase from a year prior; and 2023, 899 units, which is a 67.7% decrease from a year prior. Their electric model took only 5% of entire new car sales last year, compared to 31.9% for diesel and 62.5% for gasoline models. While having an automation strategy, the sales record of diesel and gasoline models exceeds that of electric models. Having no release of new models but only the release of year-change models might have resulted in low sales of electric new cars in Korea while competing brands were releasing new electric models. I predict that the sales of the Audi Korea electric new car won't be successful in 2024, as their new model was presented during the first quarter but released only next year. This year, only one new electric model was released.
An associated person from Audi Korea said during an interview with Consumerwide, "Last year, overall sales of electric cars in the domestic market weren't good enough. This might have been the reason. On top of that, there were quite a number of new releases from competing brands. The year of Audi automation begins next year in full scale. This year might be a year of taking a deep breath."
On the other hand, Audi has announced that they plan to strengthen their brand positioning as well as a variety of new car portfolios by presenting completely different generational internal combustion engines and plug-in hybrid models in addition to electric models.