Skip to main content

Audi streamlines its product offerings to appeal to younger buyers

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Audi is simplifying its lineup to cut costs and increase profits. The automaker has already pared down its line by 27% as it aims for an eventual 45% reduction. Audi believes more youthful shoppers aren’t going to want the same things older customers desire. Most people younger than 35 have less spending money than older buyers, and Audi believes the company must start concentrating on smaller, less expensive cars for that more youthful segment.

“We want to get more penetration in the high-end segment, but at the same time, we want to increase young customers, which you do not find in that segment,” said Audi CEO Bram Schot. “If you take an average customer over 50 years old, they have a completely different requirement set to connectivity and digitization than a 25-year-old. But the cars where you can afford that most are the cars bought by those over 50.” The higher-end models would include the A6, A7, Q7, and Q8.

Recommended Videos

One lingering question has been the future of the troubled R8 supercar. Oliver Hoffmann, Audi Sport’s head of technical development, confirmed there will be a third generation, likely to be a hybrid or full electric. The “little brother” of the R8, the TT, is also safe, but it is not clear in what configuration.

You may not have noticed, but in some markets, Audi has done away with manual transmissions for 2019. In North America, the sales numbers for stick vehicles was very low. Other moves may involve eradication of entire model lines, but no models have been explicitly identified. Audi has a difficult job ahead because what is popular for European markets may not be in the North American markets.

Audi has a proven history of innovation going back to 1982, when the company decided to go with all-wheel drive vehicles. To prove its superiority, the company entered into the World Rally Championship and won in 1982 and 1984. Later, the RS and S Line cars merged performance and luxury and made cars that were nevertheless affordable. These cars brought Audi numerous race wins on road courses and, of particular note, 13 wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

John Elkin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Worked for many off road and rally and sports car publications throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Decided to go look for a…
Google just gave vision to AI, but it’s still not available for everyone
Gemini Live App on the Galaxy S25 Ultra broadcast to a TV showing the Gemini app with the camera feature open

Google has just officially announced the roll out of a powerful Gemini AI feature that means the intelligence can now see.

This started in March as Google began to show off Gemini Live, but it's now become more widely available.

Read more
This modular Pebble and Apple Watch underdog just smashed funding goals
UNA Watch

Both the Pebble Watch and Apple Watch are due some fierce competition as a new modular brand, UNA, is gaining some serous backing and excitement.

The UNA Watch is the creation of a Scottish company that wants to give everyone modular control of smartwatch upgrades and repairs.

Read more
Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

Read more