Wheels In Motion

Over the past year, Audi India has completely overhauled its strategy for India. Ahead of the country launch of the A8, voted the ‘World luxury car 2018’, Rahil Ansari, Head of Audi India, speaks to Pankti Mehta Kadakia about going full speed ahead

- Pankti Mehta Kadakia

At 39, Rahil Ansari is the youngest director at Audi worldwide. He’s worked his way up hard, getting his hands into every aspect of the auto giant’s business—he started as a pricing consultant for new cars at the Audi headquarters in Germany back in 2004; soon, was offered charge of the sales department as part of the team bringing Audi to India in 2006. In later years (and after a short stint at Aston Martin), Ansari was instrumental in ramping up dealer development in India, before returning to Germany to dabble in after sales—the only skill set he had missing from his portfolio.

Early last year, he took the mantle of Head, Audi India. The company was just hitting its 10-year mark in the country when Ansari took over, and the year ended on a rough note, grappling with the aftermath of GST and an increased cess on luxury cars. Audi India reacted quickly, switching gears.

“In the past 12 months, we’ve completely revamped our strategy for India and defined new paths,” says Ansari. “The new plan now has four pillars—Network, Customer, Product and Digitisation.”

Shifting gears

When Audi debuted in the Indian market in 2007, the company had to work on brand awareness. “Now, it’s one of the most aspired brands in India, and one of the most coveted employers,” Ansari says. “The brand image has been established such that even if people don’t know the word ‘Audi’, they will speak of four rings, chaar chudiyan, chaar bangdi—they know exactly what the rings stand for.”