lgball

And wow, there are a ton of Audis there. Most recent sales figures show one of every 3 Audis sold is sold in China. I'd believe it. You can't swing a dead cat in Beijing without hitting a black Audi. About 60% of them are A8Ls, about 20% are A6Ls, 10% A4Ls and the rest a mix of a few A7s, A5 Sportbacks (great looking car, I wish it were available in the US) and TTs. It's simply amazing how many A8s there are, especially since the base price is about RMB870,000, which is like $139,000!

Outside of Beijing, there weren't as many, but they were still much more common than in the US. The mix was much more A6L and A4L oriented in other cities.

Saw some weird engine denominations too. Saw both round and trapezoidal tailpipes, and saw engines designated as 44 and 55 (no decimal). I have no idea what those are.

Also, I only saw one set of LED headlights. Rest were HID.

Drove past the massive Audi showroom in Beijing, but didn't get to go in.

Larry

uberwgn

That's a stunning statistic!

Are Audis only assembled in Europe? Is there another point of final assembly in China, for example?

kobanna

I was in China a few years ago and was stunned by the amount of black Audi's so I asked a tour guide about it. He said black Audi's are the take home car for government officials. Apparently, Audi was the first European car company to bring their cars to the Chinese market, so they were adopted by the government as their official vehicle.

I'm not sure if it is true, but that's the explanation I got when I was there.

neunelf

Yes, Audi has been a trailblazer in China, the first to setup an assembly plant along with VW.

The Marriott Great Wall will pick you up at the airport in an Audi if you request it...