AUDI AG sold around 741,300 vehicles worldwide in the first nine months of the year – an increase of 8.3 percent (September: 84,700; up 1.8 percent).
Ralph Weyler, AUDI AG Board Member for Marketing and Sales, declared: "We are now closing in on worldwide unit sales of 950,000 vehicles for 2007 as a whole. Despite the changeover to the new Audi A4, we are aiming to acquire 45,000 new Audi customers by the end of this year on top of the record-breaking total for 2006, and notch up our twelfth record figure in a row."
Between January and September, the brand saw its sales rise in every major export market. In the USA, Audi stepped up its sales by 9.4 percent in the first nine months of the year, selling 68,479 vehicles (September: 8,021; up 0.2 percent). In China (including Hong Kong), Audi saw its sales figures leap by 26 percent to 76,168 vehicles (September: 9,006; up 14.3 percent).
The brand was likewise able to report higher sales in the four biggest European export markets. The UK was the largest export market for the brand with the four rings, with 82,862 vehicles sold during the first nine months, a rise of 16.7 percent (September: 16,293; up 6.9 percent). In Spain, Audi sold 45,221 vehicles, an increase of 5.1 percent (September: 4,183; up 6.8 percent).
The figure was almost as high in Italy, where sales improved by 3.3 percent to 45,122 vehicles (September: 5,232; down 7.7 percent). Audi sold 6.5 percent more vehicles in France in the first nine months than in the prior-year period (September: 3,968; up 2.1 percent).
In the home market Germany, unit sales between January and September were 1.7 percent down on last year at 186,441 vehicles (September: 18,358; down 9.9 percent). That market is about to see the changeover to the new version of the high-volume Audi A4 in late November. The market share of the premium manufacturer from Ingolstadt over the first nine months – 7.8 percent – was nevertheless up on the prior-year period (2006: 7.5 percent).
The brand continued to enjoy vigorous growth in emerging markets such as Russia, with sales up 59.1 percent to 11,608 units (September: 1,529; up 37.7 percent) and the Middle East, where sales climbed 32.9 percent to 4,626 vehicles (September: 525; up 26.2 percent).
"Our progress in India is likewise highly satisfying, considering that we only set up our own importer there at the start of the year," added Ralph Weyler. Between January and September, the unit sales of AUDI AG in India rose by 33.7 percent to 266 vehicles (September: 26; up 116.7 percent).
2007 SEMA Auto Show, SEMA Girls and Models Photo Gallery