I was speaking to Joerg Muller, Volkswagen India’s chairman during the Jetta drive in May. We spoke about everything under the sun, from Indian politics to food and then of course, I had to justify my paycheck, so we veered back towards cars. At one point I blurted it out – Audi R8. I told him how Audi was missing an opportunity of making a dent in the small, but growing supercar segment in India, and that some grey importers were making a killing by offering the R8. He smiled, took a sip from his wine glass, wiped his mouth and said, ‘You’ll hear something soon’.
That ‘something soon’ has happened. The Audi R8 is now officially on sale. And for those who just thought they could put down the magazine right now and book one, well wait until next year, because the allotment for 15 cars for 2008 have all gone under the hammer. Despite that, Audi spent, what would appear, all they made out of those 15 cars on just its launch. Some might even call it overkill, but for a brand whose recognition is probably only second to Mercedes-Benz and BMW in India, being number one requires walking on a bed of nails.
Of course, the R8 is as hard as nails. Why would Audi even bother with a multi-crore rupee launch is hard to fathom, but here’s the thing. They have a lot of brand building still to do, and what better than to showcase their strengths – Quattro and performance with the R8. For the launch they brought an Auto Union Type-D and a Audi R8 Le Mans racer from ‘02 – the latter was eventually driven around Delhi’s roads with eight R8s. If that isn’t a launch party, I don’t know what is.
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