Benoit Tiers, Audi India’s managing director who was present at the launch, said that the economic meltdown has in no way affected their plans for India. “We had planned to sell 1,000 cars in 2008 but managed to sell 1050,” he said, adding, “The recession has not affected demand in emerging markets as much.”

Also present at the launch were Shreyans CEO Ashish Chordia and Audi brand head Graeme Jackson.

Tiers explained that one of the pillars of their strategy in India is to have completely local assembly of their famed cars. “We started rolling out the cars from our Aurangabad assembly unit in November 2008 and even our experts could not differentiate between a car manufactured here and one that we make outside,” he said. “We’ve picked up the best talent and that principle applies to the showroom staff as well. Everyone will be rigorously trained within the company, in the Audi Academy, as we call it,” Tiers added.

And that’s not all for Indian customers. “If you buy an Audi, you’ll get service in case of a breakdown, anytime, anywhere,” said Tiers. He added, “You just have to call up the helpline and a trained personnel will come to fetch your car, which will then be repaired in a dedicated Audi workshop.”

Tiers also announced a sop for new buyers of the Audi A6. “The A6 earlier had a two-year warranty, which will now be extended to four years. Also, if you take a loan to buy an Audi A6, you’ll get it at zero per cent interest rate.”