Audi is today celebrating the
25th jubilee of its partnership with First Automotive Works (FAW). At the same
time, Audi is today delivering to a customer its two-millionth car in China, a
locally produced Audi A6 L. The two companies have announced that they will
work together on a plug-in-hybrid project. 
“Expansion of our production
capacities in China and cooperation with FAW on a plug-in-hybrid project
especially for the Chinese market are important milestones,” stated Rupert
Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG on the occasion of the
jubilee celebrations, adding that China is Audi’s most important single
international market. 
 Stadler: “With our involvement in China, we
are strengthening our international competitive position and moving closer to
our goal of selling more than two million automobiles per annum worldwide by
the year 2020.“ With an annual capacity of 150,000 to 200,000 cars by the end
of 2013, Foshan will make a significant contribution within the international
Audi production network. In this way, the company is giving the Chinese premium
market a further boost. “With the Audi Q3 and the Audi A3, we will be the first
manufacturer to offer two locally produced model series in the growth segment
of premium compact cars,” stated Dietmar Voggenreiter, Head of China Operations
at AUDI AG.
 
Both companies are further
extending their intensive cooperation in the fields of local automobile
development, regional product tests and the qualification of parts from
suppliers. As pioneers, the partners had already designed special long versions
of the Audi A6 and Audi A4 for the Chinese market. Early in 2013, AUDI AG
opened a research and development center in Beijing and thus laid the
foundations to boost innovation in Asia.
The new factory in Foshan will be built and operated according to strict
efficiency criteria. As the first producer in China, Audi will install its
efficient start-stop technology and kinetic energy recuperation in all locally
produced models. Since the start of the efficiency program with FAW-Volkswagen
in 2011, Audi has reduced the average fuel consumption of its cars produced in
China by approximately 20 percent. 
Audi celebrated the delivery of
its one-millionth automobile in China in 2010. Within just three years, Audi
has now reached the two-million mark. The brand with the four rings is the
market leader in the local premium segment and delivered more than 400,000 cars
to Chinese customers within one year for the first time in 2012. And in the
first half of 2013, Audi for the first time passed the number of 200,000 unit
sales by the middle of the year. 
 The Audi success story in China started in
1988 with a license agreement between Audi and FAW. The two partners agreed on
the assembly of the Audi 100 from parts kits at the FAW plant Changchun. In
1995, Audi’s assembly was integrated into the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture, of
which Audi then became a shareholder.
 

Source: Audi