FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- Audi AG (NSU.XE) said Friday that global sales in September fell 6.8% year-on-year to 88,600 cars as soaring sales in China failed to offset waning demand in its domestic market, in Western Europe and in the U.S.
Audi sales chief Peter Schwarzenbauer confirmed in a statement that full-year sales are expected to come in at around 900,000 vehicles, down 10% from a sales record posted in 2008.
In the first nine months of the year, Audi's sales dropped 7.5% to 705,300 cars compared with the same period last year. The Ingolstadt-based company narrowed the gap to its two larger German rivals BMW AG (BMW.XE) and Daimler AG's (DAI) Mercedes-Benz nameplate, which were hit harder by market woes due to their larger exposure to the contracting U.S. market and a smaller presences in China.
The premium brand of Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE), Europe's largest automaker by sales, noted that the decrease in September was partly due to a high comparative figure last year.
BMW and Mercedes-Benz reported their September sales data Wednesday.
Sales at BMW, the world's best-selling luxury car maker, edged down 1.2% last month at its core brand to 97,545 vehicles. Year-to-date, sales at the BMW brand skidded 16% compared with the same period in 2008 to 777,455 vehicles, reflecting the steep fall in demand for luxury cars amid the economic downturn.
Sales at Daimler AG's (DAI) core Mercedes-Benz brand, the world's second- largest luxury car maker by sales, last month fell 5.3% to 104,900 cars.
The new-generation E-Class, a crucial model for the brand both in terms of unit sales and revenues per car, helped the Stuttgart-based automaker to outsell its peers last month and achieve the best monthly sales result so far this year.
However, Mercedes-Benz' sales in the first nine months declined by 16% on the year to 737,600 vehicles. But both BMW and Mercedes-Benz indicated that, apart from rising demand in China, other markets finally appear to be stabilizing as well, sparking optimism for coming months.
Comparisons to 2008 are set to improve in coming months as sales, especially of luxury cars, started to deteriorate in September last year and slumped toward the end of 2008 amid recession.
Luxury car makers are expected to feel little impact from an anticipated market slump caused by the expiration of state-backed scrapping incentives in many markets around the globe because the initiatives sparked demand mostly for cheaper, smaller vehicles produced by mass-market manufacturers.
BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi face a less distorted market environment, but some analysts cautioned that the expected pressure on prices in the mass-market segment might spill over into the premium segment as well.
Company Web site: www.audi.com
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