Audi R8 sold out in India before launch

With 15 orders already in the bag for its super luxury R8 sports car scheduled for launch in November, German luxury car maker Audi AG says the model is sold out for this year. Priced at Rs 1.3 crore in India, the R8 will be imported directly from Germany and will not be available for test drives. The car will not go through homologation or approval by the authorities due to the low volumes. Bookings for the car started in June.

“In Germany, people have to wait for months for delivery of the R8. Since the car is partly handmade, the numbers are limited. The car is almost sold out globally this year,” said an Audi spokesperson on the sidelines of the opening of the new corporate sales office of Volkswagen and Audi here on Wednesday. There are at present only two or three R8s on Indian roads bought through direct imports.

A total of 2,952 units of the R8 were sold worldwide. With a mid-engine, the 420-horse power vehicle has permanent all-wheel drive and an all-aluminum space frame body.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Niche opportunities abound in China

During the last 10 years, a sea change has occurred as to how Indian businesses view China. The fear and awe has been replaced by a realistic understanding of Chinese import ‘threat’. Over the decade, Indian businesses acquainted themselves with Chinese Markets by visiting Chinese trade fairs and developing business relationships.

However, during this limited exposure to China what Indian businesses, particularly SMEs, missed was the rise of Chinese Markets: for imported consumer and producer goods as well as for raw materials and intermediate products for processing for export to third-country Markets. Indeed, China is set to overtake Japan as the biggest importer in Asia by around 2015. Many countries, particularly Asian, have lapped up the opportunities in the burgeoning Chinese market.

Asian exports to China increased on average by over 46% a year from the year 2000 to reach $52.4 billion in 2005. That was much higher than the annual growth rate of 4.3% in Asian exports to all Markets outside China. Malaysia became the largest exporter to China ($12.7 billion) within Asian in 2003, a position previously occupied by Singapore at $10.1 billion. The previous trade deficits became surpluses in Malaysia and the Philippines, while deficits were lower in Thailand and Singapore in 2003. The Philippines’ exports to China have quintupled since 1999 (2005).

To read the full article , click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com