Auto industry | Audi’s positive prospects regarding Macau’s car market

Audi, a German car brand, is hoping for Macau’s automobile market to stabilize later this year as its sales in Hong Kong are recuperating due to an improvement in the region’s property and stock markets.
“The automobile market, as well as the overall retail sector, in Hong Kong is a little bit under pressure at the moment,” said managing director of Audi Hong Kong and Macau Rene Koneberg to EJ Insight.
He said Macau is also going through a rough patch and he hoped that it would improve by the beginning of next year.
Koneberg noted that Audi saw a 14 percent sales decline in Hong Kong in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year, while the entire market in the region had a 25 to 30 percent downturn.
EJ Insight reported that Audi’s sales in China, including Hong Kong, grew 5.9 percent to 290,126 units for the first half of the year compared to the previous homologous period, representing 30.4 percent of its global sales of 953,200 units.
The managing director of the automobile brand also revealed that the company is set to launch its pure electric vehicles globally in 2018 and noted that the infrastructure of charging stations by then should be well implemented.
Moreover, in a bid to boost sales in Hong Kong, Audi has set up a new department to integrate digital technology into the sales process. Thus consumers can look forward to attending car shows wearing 3D glasses and experience driving Audi models online.