Audi dealers may have role in on-demand system

BARCELONA, Spain — As Audi prepares to expand its Audi on Demand rental experiment beyond its 2-year-old pilot project in San Francisco to another four cities, the CEO of Audi of America says the brand's dealer network could get involved in the mobility experiment down the road.

Scott Keogh, president of Audi of America, says the premium brand's 296 dealerships in the U.S. are well-positioned to capitalize should Audi take its mobility plan national.

"It could potentially open up a world where our dealers become mobility centers," Keogh said on the sidelines of a global meeting here last week. "And by being mobility centers, you can open up a world where they have a rental car business, where they have an on-demand business, where they [can utilize] service loaners more effectively. These are all models that we're looking at."

In 2015, the Audi on Demand pilot program began in San Francisco. The program allowed customers to use a cellphone app to order an Audi delivered to their location, detailed and fueled, and to be picked up at the end of a rental period.

The Audi program differentiated itself from other car-sharing programs with its premium lineup, allowing customers to choose their exact vehicle from those available. Most other car-sharing programs have scattered vehicles — often bare-bones ones — across major cities for customers who need quick, easy access to basic transportation.

Audi, which is in the process of acquiring the remaining 80 percent of luxury car service Silvercar, plans to expand Audi on Demand soon, though it has not yet identified the four cities it will add. At a company meeting here, representatives of Audi on Demand called the San Francisco pilot a success.

Keogh said Audi's dealer network could one day provide the infrastructure for a broadening of the Audi on Demand service, which would allow dealers to maximize utilization of their fleets, facilities and capital. But such an expansion would require time to develop, he said.

"One thing we don't want to do is ... put something in that doesn't work, that doesn't make money or that doesn't have appropriate customer demand. But I think there is no debate that the world of one car, one customer — and that's the only way to generate revenue — is not true. There is a more expansive view of that," Keogh said.

"I look at our dealers, and what I see is 296 people with beautiful facilities, that have a lot of fleets on the ground that can be utilized and optimized, and they're in these communities already," Keogh said. "We have this brilliant thing called an infrastructure, so I see a lot of opportunity there. That's why we're getting smarter with on-demand, we're doing what we're doing in San Francisco, and when it's right for our dealers, we'll roll it out there. We'll roll it out slowly so that it makes sense."