Audi sales rise on global front

Audi increased its sales in all regions of the world in February and exceeded the prior-year month by 16.6 percent in delivering 106,600 vehicles. Demand rose particularly sharply in China, where a new best figure of 31,352 units was recorded – up 65.7 percent. Audi also achieved continued double-digit growth in North America (+10.9 percent). In Europe, an increase of 2.1 percent was achieved thanks primarily to Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the entire Eastern European region. For the year to date, worldwide sales for Audi have reached around 202,700 cars, a rise of 8.5 percent.

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This was the first time that the company has exceeded the mark of 200,000 vehicles by the end of February.“We are well on track to achieving the strongest first quarter in Audi’s history, thanks especially to high levels of growth in the USA and China,” says Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management for Marketing and Sales at AUDI AG. With regard to the upcoming market launch of the new A6 long-wheelbase version developed specially for the Chinese market he adds: “In China, we will further extend our worldwide initiative in the full-size category with the new A6L. We aim to sell significantly more units of this model than of its extremely successful predecessor.” With an increase of 25 percent in February, the current A6L is experiencing a remarkably strong end of lifecycle and comfortably remains the market leader in its segment.

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The new model will belaunched in April. The new generation of the A8L, on the other hand, has already been available in China for one year. With this generation, Audi has more than doubled its market share in the luxury segment in China (2,032 units) and thus further strengthened the brand’s presence in the top segments. Worldwide, the full-size A6, A7 and A8 models achieved the strongest growth rates of all in Audi’s model range in the past month. In Europe, the Audi Q3 and the A1 Sportback, which was launched onto its first markets in February,1/3 attracted additional customers to Audi dealers.

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On Audi’s home market of Germany, the brand’s sales figures were up 4.5 percent on the prior-year month to 19,769 cars. Even sharper growth was achieved in Austria, with vehicle deliveries up 20.2 percent to 1,560 units. In both of Audi’s biggest European export markets, sales increased considerably: Audi UK delivered 4,150 premium cars in February, 10.1 percent more than in the prior- year month, while Audi France achieved growth of 5.0 percent in selling 5,654 units. In Spain, the company reached the sales level of the prior year with 3,952 new customers (+0.1 percent), despite the continuing difficult economic situation.

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AUDI AG also maintained its lead in the premium segment in the year to date in Italy, where the number of vehicles delivered in February went down by 27.3percent to 4,003 units. Audi achieved significant growth in the Eastern European markets, where sales increased by 34.9 percent. In Russia alone, sales for February climbed year on year by 54.8 percent to 2,330 units. With the Q3, Audi is strengthening its position in one of the world’s most important SUV markets: More than half of all premium cars sold in Russia today belong to this category. In the past month, Audi achieved double-digit growth rates on all major markets on the American continent. In Canada, the brand with the four rings continues to grow more quickly than the competition, with a rise of 16.9 percent to 1,409 vehicles delivered in February.

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In the USA, Audi once again increased its sales by 10.0 percent to 8,531 cars, particularly as a result of continued high level growth for the new A6 Sedan. Two of the brand’s design icons also contributed to Audi of America’s 14th successive record month. In particular, the highly coveted sporty TT RS version helped sales for the Audi TT in the USA to rise by 46.8 percent to 326 units for the first two months. In the same period, 1,227 units of the A7 Sportback were sold in the USA. The USA has therefore established itself as the biggest sales market for the A7 after just a few months. In South America, too, the pleasing development of the previous months continued for all models; the sales figures in the countries of this region increased in February by 36.3 percent to 1,493 in total.This growth was led by Argentina, where 647 customers took receipt of their new Audi, 60.1 percent more than in February 2011.