Audi stumped by sales run-out

Audi sales in Australia for the year to date are yet to reach 9500 units. This time last year, the prestige brands sales were over 13,000.

Why the shortfall?

It's all associated with the broader malaise afflicting the local market, but there's an additional wrinkle for Audi, in the form of marginal supply for its normally strong-selling Audi Q3 SUV and the tiny Audi A1 light hatch.

Since the federal election, Audi dealers are reporting more interest (and actual orders), but the importer has run low of its stock of the A1 and Q3, in anticipation of new models arriving this year. The original plan was for both these vehicles to be introduced by now.

Unfortunately, the stocks of the old models ran low from as far back as January, according to Shaun Cleary – Corporate Communications Manager for Audi Australia – but the local on-sale dates for the new models are in November. The new WLTP fuel economy and emissions protocol is delaying the introduction of the new models in global markets like Australia.

“The delays are longer than anticipated, but obviously what we see ahead of us now is a huge opportunity from now throughout 2020, because we have a whole suite of new products in the pipleline,” Cleary told carsales.

“We expect to have the youngest product line-up in the premium segment over the course of the next 12 months.

“WLTP has impacted our supply to customers. Models like the A1 and Q3 have traditionally been very popular and we have not been able to meet market demand. Which is why we're very optimistic for when November rolls around.”

A particularly noteable example of that syndrome, Cleary says, is the R8, which has been on sale in Europe since late 2018, but won't reach Australia until the second quarter of 2020. Normally, a new model released in Europe would be scheduled for launch in Australia within around six months.

There are signs that the bureaucrats overseeing the specification paperwork are beginning to catch up, however. The queues are already beginning to shorten – for mainstream models at least, if not the R8.