Audi AG views electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. as a luxury-brand competitor while questioning its choice to skip dealers and sell directly to consumers, Audi’s top executive in the Americas said.

Any automaker that can sell vehicles for more than $100,000 is a competitor in the luxury market, Scott Keogh, president of Audi of America, said Friday. He called Tesla, based in Palo Alto, California, “cool” and “the talk of the town.”