A global brand but local cars is Audi's future, says CEO

Global car strategies that spread development costs across multiple markets are being challenged by post-COVID conditions, supply disruptions, and escalating trade and conflict risks. Audi AG CEO Gernot Döllner says Audi must be flexible with a global perspective. The new Q9 is presented as a US-centered development effort, dedicated to the US for the first time, with global launch timing arranged after the US. The approach includes US-focused interior features such as cup holders and attention to customer satisfaction measures like JD Power surveys. Audi also reworks smart door panels, returns to dedicated switches, optimizes interior cooling, and adjusts seating and roof concepts based on key customer input. Europe and the US can be kept aligned through closer listening to US customers.

"“With Audi we have to be flexible on a global perspective,” said Audi AG CEO Gernot Döllner, and the new Q9 is an example of that. “It's really the car where US requirements were at the center of the product development process. It's dedicated to the US for the first time. Global launch, not Europe and then US. And for the Q9, it's the US first and then it's also dominated the volume we expect by the US American market. And then after the US, we will have the global launch of that car,” he said."

"Yes, that means bigger and better cup holders that can handle the insulated mugs that everyone had to have, as we saw from the Q9's interior. But it also means paying more attention to things like the JD Power surveys and so on. For example, for the Q9, “we rearranged the smart door panels we have in our A5, A6, and Q5 cars and came back to dedicated switches, optimized the interior cooling, and of course seating, the roof concept, all that with a key customer focus,” Döllner said."

"“We definitely will be able to keep Europe and the US together when it comes to products. And we will do that by listening more carefully to US customers, because I learned that earlier in my career, that's no problem in Europe to have a product that's perfect for the US, but sometimes it's the other way around a little bit difficult, which is absolutely alright,” he said."

Read at Ars Technica