Due To Record Sales, BMW and Audi to Expand Factories This Year

According to Bloomberg, BMW, Mercedes and Audi AG, the world’s three largest luxury-car makers, will expand factories this year to ease capacity constraints driven by record demand for their vehicles.

Volkswagen AG’s Audi is aiming to overthrown BMW as the world’s bigger maker of premium vehicles by 2015, and plans to increase production for cars and SUV to more than the 1.15 million produced in 2010.
BMW and Mercedes have similar plants with increased production at the Leipzig and respectively Stuttgart plant.

“The top three are poised for further growth,” said Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based analyst with Bankhaus Metzler who recommends buying VW, Daimler and BMW shares. “The momentum in luxury markets will continue this year and also in 2012. It’s a necessity for manufacturers to take steps to address this.”

The increase in automobiles sales is a direct link to the expanding Chinese market which became one of the two largest auto markets in the world. United States continues to remain the largest one. Audi plans to spend 11.6 billion euros ($15.7 billion) through 2015 on plants and new models. BMW has spent 1.5 billion euros alone on its German plants since 2009, while Daimler is building an 800 million-euro small-car plant in Hungary.

While BMW plans over 20 new models in the next five years, Audi said will roll out a total of 13 new models and upgraded vehicles this year.

The VW unit will spend more than 5 billion euros at two German factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, where the A6 will be built. Audi also said it will begin work this year to expand a factory in Gyor, Hungary, to increase capacity to 125,000 cars.

Read More: http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/01/21/due-to-record-sales-bmw-and-audi-to-expand-factories-this-year/

2011 Detroit Auto Show: 2012 Audi A6 Hybrid

Audi loves clean diesels, but the German automaker certainly hasn't stacked its entire deck with them. In addition to the upcoming 2012 Audi Q5 Hybrid and the brand's e-Tron electric sports cars in the pipeline, it's now taking hybrids and electric cars seriously, too.

And one of Audi's best options for green-conscious U.S. luxury shoppers might end up being the 2012 A6 Hybrid. The front-wheel-drive, not quattro, sedan will combine the brand's ubiquitous—but efficient and responsive—direct-injected and turbocharged 2.0-liter TFSI four-cylinder engine with a strong electric motor (45 hp, 155 pound-feet of torque) mounted ahead of the eight-speed automatic transmission.

The trunk-mounted lithium-ion battery pack allows a peak 39 kW but despite a small 1.3 kWh the A6 Hybrid can go for up to two miles on electric power alone and can run at up to 62 mph without the gasoline engine on.

Like the rest of the 2012 Audi A6 line, the new Hybrid has an all-new structure combining aluminum and high-strength steel, with extensive hydraulic damping to keep the interior experience especially smooth.

And just as in the mainstream A6 models, Audi looks to its all-new infotainment systems, incorporating the latest-generation MMI interface, with Bang & Olufsen sound and Google Maps–based displays, as a centerpiece of the A6 interior. Audi also shows off its knack for beautiful interiors with a hand-crafted interior look that includes real wood veneers, ambient lighting, and a look that takes after that of the larger A8.

Read More: http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1053488_2011-detroit-auto-show-2012-audi-a6-hybrid

Chicago Used Audi