BEIJING — Audi will build its new Q5 premium SUV in China starting next year, company insiders told Automotive News Europe.
The Q5 will be built in a new plant Audi is constructing in Changchun in northern China.
FAW-Volkswagen Automotive currently builds the Audi A4 and A6 as well as five VW models in Changchun.
Audi will export the Q5 to China from its plant in Ingolstadt, southern Germany, until its China plant starts production in the summer of 2009, company sources said.
The Q5 will go on sale in Europe starting this summer. The first Q5 shipments to China will begin early next year.
Audi expects China to be the third largest single market for the Q5 after Western Europe and the U.S.
Last year, China overtook the UK as Audi’s biggest market outside Germany. Audi’s Chinese sales grew 24.8 percent to 101,996 units while its UK sales increased 17.1 percent to 100,712.
In the first quarter, Audi’s Chinese sales grew a 25 percent to 30,188 units, the company said.
