The carmaker wants to significantly increase its share of electric cars by the end of the year.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich The Ingolstadt carmaker Audi wants to stay out of the price war in the industry. No price reductions are currently planned, said CFO Jürgen Rittersberger on Friday when presenting the business figures for the first quarter. “We are pursuing a sustainable pricing strategy, we owe that to our customers.” A price war also has a massive impact on residual values. “We will not participate in the price competition.”
The electric car manufacturer Tesla had recently repeatedly reduced the prices for its vehicles, and a price war for electric cars has broken out, especially in China. In recent years, the prices for new and used cars have only known the way up because fewer vehicles were produced due to the shortage of semiconductors. That has since improved significantly. On Thursday, BMW had predicted that vehicle prices would normalize: Better availability of vehicles can be expected with better chip supply, which could lead to more competition.
Audi intends to significantly increase its share of electric cars by the end of the year. Rittersberger said he expects a double-digit share of total sales. Currently, 8.2 percent of Audi vehicles only have an electric motor. The Ingolstadt-based company has announced that it will launch its last combustion model in 2026. For the end of the year, Audi has announced a model offensive in which more than ten new all-electric vehicles are to be launched.
Audi’s sales increased by 18.2 percent to 16.9 billion euros in the first quarter. The operating result, however, shrank to 1.8 billion euros after 3.5 billion a year ago. Valuation effects from raw material hedging transactions in particular played a role, which would have pushed the result down by 400 million euros, said Rittersberger. The company is sticking to its forecast for the year as a whole and anticipates deliveries of 1.8 to 1.9 billion euros and sales of 69 to 72 billion euros. The return on sales should be between nine and eleven percent. In the first quarter, it was at the top end of the range at 10.8 percent, but lower than rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
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