Audi Vows to Gain on BMW

Volkswagen AG's Audi unit tells Bloomberg News that a wave of new products will overcome "very strong" competition and help it overtake BMW AG as the world's best-selling luxury brand by 2020.

Last year Audi narrowed its gap with BMW to 79,600 vehicles. CEO Rupert Stadler reiterates that the company will expand its lineup to 60 models by then from 49 today, hiking annual sales to 2 million units or more. Audi sold nearly 1.6 million vehicles worldwide in 2013.

Stadler tells Bloomberg that SUV/crossovers are key to Audi's growth strategy. The company expects such vehicles to account for more than 35% of its total production by the end of the decade compared with 28% last year. The company's latest addition to the segment, the subcompact Q1, is due in 2016