Audi considering American production base
Q5 SUV is shaping up as the prestige brand's first model to roll down a production line in the USASales are booming and the GFC is a memory -- at least for Audi. The German prestige manufacturer has consequently dusted off its plans to build cars in the United States.
Chairman Rupert Stadler confirmed at the Detroit Motor Show that Audi would follow BMW and Mercedes-Benz into the world's premier car market before 2015.
"US production is back on the agenda, but it never really left the agenda," Stadler confirmed. "We were always thinking about it, but it was never quite right -- but it has to be before 2015. The question is, what is the right timing and what is the right product?"
With the Q5 cementing itself as Audi's biggest seller in the US, either it or the next Q7 is most likely to be the prime candidate to be the first US-built Audi. America is the production home of both BMW's X5 and the Mercedes-Benz M-Class, so if you're a German manufacturer casting around for a piece of the market or logistical efficiencies, you could do a lot worse than build an SUV in the USA.
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