Audi to Dealers: Wean Yourselves Off Incentives and Get Ready to Push EVs
Along with the rest of Volkswagen AG, Audi has made plans to invest heavily into electric vehicles. The company expects EVs to comprise 25 percent of its U.S. sales by 2025 and is devoting Wards Auto, he’s not exactly thrilled with the way dealerships have been doing business at the present, either. Many have become comfortable offering large incentives to encourage sales while recouping the loss in the servicing and parts department — something that will become less lucrative when Audi goes all-electric.
“We have to look at alternative channels and start to make money,” Keogh told dealers. “These cars are going to have to be fixed less. But you’re going to have a host of opportunities around the battery and helping the customer in their home.
“That’s a very, very, profoundly dangerous game,” he continued. “Because you end up telling the customer…
Keogh believes the move toward electrification in the United States will become unstoppable as charging infrastructure continues to develop. Volkswagen has pledged spend $2 billion installing public charging utilities across the nation as part of its emissions cheating punishment, Tesla has been perpetually expanding its own network, and most states have green initiatives dedicated toward EV powering solutions.
The lessening of dreaded range anxiety should help ease dealership concerns over the swift normalization of electrified vehicles as the general public sees fewer downsides to EV ownership.
“All this fright about where am I going to get a charge is going to go away extremely fast,” Keogh claimed. “The technology on this front is moving at a staggering pace. You’re going to be looking at a marketplace in the next seven, eight, nine, 10 years where for 30 or 40 some brands their entire business is going to be battery-electric vehicles.”
“Do we want to jump in and compete? Without a doubt,” he said. “We have the resources, the scale, the infrastructure, the customers [and] the dealers to compete in this new order.”
[Image: Audi]
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That's pretty rich of Scott Keogh to tell the dealers to stop whoring out cars when he is the one who revised the the 200k in 2020 to 200K in 2015 without any new product just to stroke his humongous ego. Audi's were worth more when dealers weren't sitting on inventories of 200 or more, now the customers are addicted to rebates and discounts. Why I left the brand, I couldn't make real money selling Audi's anymore.
While cross hopping for a midsize sedan I was shocked to realize that basic Audi A6 was priced pretty much the same as BMW 525. A6 looks pretty nice, but BMW has some serious discounts on 5-series these days. I am frustrated with the new Mercedes E-class pricing. Basic luxury sedan for $60K with 4-cylinder engine? That gave me a pause... I was expecting to see A6 at around $40K, but dealers are asking around $47K. This made me think how would the venerable German brands fare in the brand new world of electric vehicles. Likely that cars will go the way of electronics. All production will be moved to Asia. Are cars becoming more and more a disposable commodity like TV's/VCR's through the 60s-80s?