By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) Jun 19 -- Audi has to speed up development of new models to meet a surge in demand for electric vehicles, especially in China, the German luxury carmaker's CEO Markus Duesmann said in an interview with Reuters published on June 15.

The company needs new and shorter production cycles for the areas of connectivity and software. "And we are also looking more intensively at how this is done in China," Duesmann said.

The Volkswagen subsidiary has lagged behind fellow German carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the pivot towards battery-electric vehicles (BEV).

"In 2030, the BEV share of the premium car market should already be between 60 and 70%, depending on the region," Duesmann said. "We have to react when a market suddenly changes so quickly."

That shift could happen even sooner in China, but Audi's sales performance in the world's biggest car market has fallen short of expectations. The reason, Duesmann said, is that "we still don't have the optimal vehicles on the market for Chinese needs".

From January to March, Audi sold just over 3,000 electric cars in China.

Unlike BMW and Mercedes, Audi has not brought out any major additions to its model range over the past two years. The new Q6 e-tron has been delayed by behind-schedule software development, according to the Reuters report.