Audi will add indoor track to Frankfurt show display to keep pace with BMW

Audi AG will spend more than 10 million euros ($14.3 million) on an indoor test track at this year's Frankfurt auto show to outshine BMW and Mercedes-Benz as rivalry among the three biggest luxury carmakers intensifies.

According to KHABAR KHODRO, Audi, which had previously showcased its models as part of the Volkswagen AG group's display, is investing more than ever to have its own pavilion. The biannual Frankfurt auto show, Europe's biggest, runs from Sept. 15 to Sept. 25.

Audi, which sold 1.09 million cars last year, has pledged to unseat BMW AG as the world's largest maker of luxury cars by 2015.

Daimler AG's Mercedes, is also planning a display with a roadway at the show. Both are following BMW, which was the first to have a track to show its cars in action at the Frankfurt event in 2009.

"Car shows are the ultimate platform for manufacturers to compete with each other, especially in the luxury sector," Wolfgang Meinig, head of the Bamberg, Germany-based FAW Research Center for Automobile Industry. "Audi is taking this battle to another level. They're breaking away from VW group presentations to take BMW and Mercedes head on."

Audi's curvy temporary exhibition hall for Frankfurt measures 100 meters (328 feet) long, 70 meters wide and 12 meters high. Integrated into the building is a 400-meter long track that loops into the interior and is partially visible from outside the building.

About 30 models will be on display, and visitors can ride in about a dozen vehicles, including race cars, that will circle the hall.

"We'll make a strong statement," Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said in Frankfurt last week. "It'll be surprising, emotional, architecturally great, with a real wow effect."