Audi, Porsche to expand sales networks - magazine

FRANKFURT, Nov 3 (Reuters) - German luxury carmakers Audi (NSUG.DE) and Porsche (PSHG_p.DE) are looking to expand their dealership networks to take advantage of growth in emerging markets and close the gaps to competitors.

Audi sales chief Ralph Weyler wants to bring the number of showrooms to 3,000 worldwide by 2011 at the latest from a current level of 2,700, he told German magazine auto motor und sport.

"We need this density in order to achieve our targeted sales of 1.5 million vehicles (annually)," he said in an interview with the magazine that hits stands on Wednesday.

This would bring the number of Audi showrooms on par with rival BMW (BMWG.DE), which has no plans at present to increase its number of sales points past 3,000.

Porsche sales chief Klaus Berning wants to improve the group's international footprint by filling the white spaces on the map with new showrooms.

"We want to continuously expand our current network of 650 dealers to more than 700 in the coming 10 years, mainly in growth markets like China, India and Russia," he was quoted as saying.

Berning expects to sell more than 3,500 Porsches in China this year and said that in five years at the latest the country could very well be a bigger market for the carmaker than Germany, where it sells 17 percent of its volume.

"In India we see similar potential as in China, but only in in 10 to 15 years," Berning said.

((Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner, editing by Chris Johnson; E-mail: christiaan.hetzner@reuters.com; +49 69 7565 1249)) Keywords: AUTOS GERMANY/

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