Warren Richards, head of direct sales at Audi, talks to John Challen about the company’s EV product rollout and the opportunities it presents.

Warren Richards, head of direct sales at Audi

You’ve moved around the Volkswagen Group in recent years, how does it feel to be back at Audi?

WR: After time as Audi’s national contract hire and leasing manager – and then national corporate sales manager – I moved across to Škoda and then to Group in an aftersales role. Returning to Audi after eight years has been great – especially coming back into Audi fleet; it feels a little bit like coming home. The people are lovely and seeing some familiar faces was great.

What are your biggest challenges in the role and what would you like to achieve?

WR: The biggest goal is to get back to basics. Fleet is all about relationships and looking after customers. That means making sure they’ve got clarity and transparency about what they’ve ordered, when it’s due and when it’s coming. Then, the fleet manager can pass that information onto the drivers, who also have absolute confidence that their car is going to arrive at the time that they expect. Confidence in that whole chain of communications is critical. Over the past few years, it’s been tough, because of production and supply chain issues, to provide that information because we haven’t had it ourselves.

So, I want to build confidence in the fleet managers – and also the leasing industry – that we can actually supply cars within a reasonable timescale. While we haven’t been able to do that in the past couple of years, we are now getting back on track.

How important is the fleet market to Audi, now and in the future?

WR: We’ve been number one in true fleet for the past couple of years and I’d love to maintain that, if possible. Again, the way we do that is by giving the customers confidence that if they order cars, we can deliver them. Keeping on top of the fleet market is another key challenge for us, but we’ll be helped by a number of new models, including Q8 e-tron, Q6 e-tron and A6 e-tron next year. Then also there’s a smaller A3-sized e-tron model in 2026/27, which is part of a pretty heavyweight portfolio coming up: between now and 2027 we’ll launch 20 cars, of which 10 will be BEVs.

How is Audi able to help fleets in their transition to EV?

WR: While a lot of fleets have already moved – in part or completely – to EVs, there are still fleet managers who have concerns over it. Specifically, what it means for them and whether their drivers are ready for the change. That’s where various Audi teams can help because of their expertise in not just fleet, but also BEVs. The fleet team operates as consultants, helping customers and fleets to understand where the foibles are, what businesses need to think about and give them the confidence to transition into fleet. We’ve made good progress in that – 92% of fleets have got some kind of electric vehicle on their list, so there is definitely confidence out there.

What about the 8% who haven’t made any move to EVs?

WR: Customers will decide when it’s right for them. Our job is to ensure that they get full information about what it means to own and drive a BEV and what it means for their business and understand why they haven’t chosen to do so. Often, it’s just the idea of changing from an ICE car – there’s some nervousness about it.

How will the Audi model range change in an electric world?

WR: The new electric models previously mentioned give a flavour of what the intention is. We don’t want to have a restricted range of models – quite the opposite, in fact. The strategy that we’ve always had is to offer lots of models to fit in with the individual requirements of drivers – and that will remain with EVs. The smaller EV will open up a new set of opportunities for fleet drivers, user-choosers, sal-sac drivers; the whole range.