Audi India will launch the Q8 e-tron, an electric car, later this year, Balbir Singh Dhillon, head of Audi India, told FE. “We will bring the Q8 e-tron to India in the second half of 2023,” Dhillon said, adding that the EV will join the company’s extensive range of electric car models already on sale, including the e-tron GT, RS e-tron GT, e-tron and e-tron Sportback.
Automotive analysts said that like all its existing electric car models, the Q8 e-tron is also expected to come to India as a CBU (completely built unit) import, and therefore will be very expensive, because carmakers have to pay 100% duty on CBU imports priced more than $40,000 (the Q8 e-tron is priced about $74,000 in the US). “While Skoda Auto Volkswagen India — the parent of Audi India — is considering local manufacturing of electric cars, it is expected to start with Volkswagen or Skoda brand models first, and maybe in 2024-25,” said an analyst.
Audi India’s electric car range starts at Rs 1.02 crore (e-tron) and tops at Rs 1.94 crore (RS e-tron GT). But next year onwards Audi India will launch more affordable electric cars. “Globally, Audi is introducing a range of electric cars across price points,” Dhillon said. “We will have a much wider choice for the Indian market next year onwards.”
While he didn’t talk about local manufacturing of electric cars, he said that by 2025 Audi India hopes to achieve about 15% sales from electric cars. “That implies we will have to have enough electric models more affordable than our current offerings,” he said.
On Wednesday, the carmaker launched the ‘Charge my Audi’ app — a one-stop application for multiple charging stations. “It offers a convenient route planner, real-time charger status, start and stop charging, real time state-of-charge, and an all-in-one payment gateway,” Singh said. “It was developed based on the feedback we received from our existing electric car customers.”
Charging station partners include Aargo EV Smart, Charge Zone, LionCharge, Relux Electric and Zeon Charging, and all put together offer more than 750 charge points. Audi is also giving complimentary charging for its customers till August 2023.
