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The
Volkswagen-owned brand last month reported a 37 percent
plunge in operating profit after it raised provisions to help
meet the cost of the group's diesel emissions test-cheating
scandal. [nL5N1GS22D]
Audi said on Tuesday it would start building a full-sized Q8 SUV
at a Volkswagen (VW) factory in Bratislava, Slovakia, next year
and in 2019 add the Q4 SUV in Gyor, Hungary.
Audi's new offerings in the fast-growing SUV market will compete
with forthcoming models from German rival BMW, which is adding
an X2 and an X7 to its lineup in 2018.
"We are integrating two completely new Q models into the
existing production network and are raising our competitiveness
in an extremely important segment," Audi production chief Hubert
Waltl said.
Audi's efforts to raise margins with the new vehicles will be
helped by low production costs at the chosen sites.
Labor costs in the manufacturing industries of Slovakia and
Hungary were an hourly 10.70 euros and 8.40 euros per worker
respectively in 2016, compared with 26.10 euros in Britain and
33.40 euros in Germany, according to Germany's Federal
Statistics Office.
Audi last year slipped into third place behind BMW and
Mercedes-Benz in terms of luxury car sales. An expanded lineup
of SUVs may also help Audi to gain ground in the United States
where it sells many fewer cars than its two German competitors.
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter)
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