Audi AG, China's largest luxury auto brand, will launch sales of three plug-in hybrid models in China in the near future but it has no plans to market an electric car, its top executive in China says.

 

Audi will launch sales of a locally produced plug-in hybrid version of the long-wheelbase A6 sedan later this year, Audi China President Joachim Wedler said during a Sunday news briefing in Beijing.

 

Like its gasoline version, the plug-in A6L is built at Volkswagen Group's joint venture with China FAW Group Corp. in the northeast China city of Changchun.

 

The car has a 2.0-liter engine with an electric motor that provides power to the front wheels. It can drive for 50 km powered by batteries only.

 

Toward the end of the year, Audi will start importing a plug-in hybrid version of the Q7 crossover. The Q7 plug-in hybrid is equipped with a 2.0-liter gasoline engine and has a range of 53 km on battery power alone. 

 

The German luxury brand also will import a plug-in hybrid A8 sedan in the near future, though a firm date has yet to be set.

 

Audi's first plug-in hybrid, the A3 Sportback e-tron, went on sale in China last year. The car carries a 1.4-liter engine and can drive up to 50 km on batteries only.

 

But Audi has no plans to sell an EV in China any time soon, according to Wedler.

 

For EVs to win over more customers, two elements are key, he said. The first is a long driving range. "It is a must," Wedler noted. The second element is fast battery recharging. An EV should be able to recharge 80 percent of its battery capacity in less than half an hour, he added.

 

Although Audi is gaining market share from BMW and Mercedes in the United States, the brand is losing share to its two rivals in China, its largest market.

 

Wedler said Audi is fighting back, but the narrowing gap in market share among the three German rivals comes as no surprise, Wedler noted. "This is business," he said.

 

In the first three months of the year, Audi's China sales increased 4.7 percent to 139,540 vehicles. In the same period, BMW's China deliveries rose nearly 11 percent to 127,105 vehicles, while Mercedes volume jumped 36 percent to 106,641 vehicles.

 

At the Beijing auto show, Audi is launching sales of the upgraded A4L and the modified Q3, which are built at FAW-VW.