Speech to the Audi Press Conference Auto Show Shanghai

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome, and thank you for joining us at Audi! The show you will see today combines tradition and modernity. Our artists are crossing the borders of classical music and breakdance. With piano and electronic beats.

They demonstrate that tradition and modernity are a perfect match.

  • Like China: A country of great history, but at the same time the most dynamic economy in the world.
  • Like Audi: Since 100 years we stand for progress.
  • Like the new Audi A3 sedan: A completely new model in the Audi range, designed and engineered to project a classic body style into modernity.

In China Audi also means tradition and modernity:  For 25 years, we have been the number-one premium brand in China. In 2012, we continued to further increase our lead over the competition. And now, we have seen our strongest-ever first quarter here.

The growing enthusiasm for our brand makes it clear: Thanks to our long experience in this market and thanks to the great joint venture with First Automotive Works we know what’s really important to our customers here and what makes a car desirable to Chinese customers.

Let me emphasize: We were the first to produce special long versions for China

  • like the A4 L and the A6 L,  the first to develop a special Multimedia Interface touchpad that recognizes Chinese characters and the first to offer all locally built cars with the fuel efficient start-stop-technology over here.

And in a few minutes we will show you a model that we believe will be the next big success for us: the new Audi A3 sedan – right next to me. And it’s definitely no coincidence that we are launching the A3 sedan here in Shanghai. This new model will be available in this market as of 2014.

China is a key market for this model. Its body style is extremely popular here and it perfectly fits with what many customers here want from a car. The premium compact segment is forecast to double in the next seven years. And the compact sedan is the biggest segment worldwide.

As you will see in a few minutes, the A3 sedan demonstrates, as the whole A3 family impressively does: Premium is not a matter of size!

Thank you very much.