After A 56% DROP In September, Audi Gives Negative Guidance On EU Sales For The Coming Months...

Volkswagen’s premium brand Audi on Friday said it expected sales in Europe to fluctuate in the coming months after a 55.5 percent slump in September sales due to supply bottlenecks caused by stricter anti-pollution rules.

Last month VW Group’s sales fell by half in Europe’s five biggest markets, according to analysts at Citi, after several top selling models failed to conform to new the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test (WLTP) rules...

...“Following above-average sales results in Europe over the past two months due to the sell-off of models in stock, the increasingly empty stores and the restrictions in the sales portfolio had an adverse effect on deliveries in September,” Audi said...

MDarringer - 10/6/2018 6:32:18 PM

+3 Boost

That's pretty cataclysmic.

TheSteve - 10/6/2018 7:17:09 PM

+7 Boost

It's really hard to continuously game the numbers so as to appear to ALWAYS have a unit sales increase, each month, regardless of seasonal and economic factors... and carry this on for several years, unabated. Audi's game of "always growing / never missing a beat" is catching up with them, so they can't continue without raising the red flag of unquestionable fraud.

GermanNut - 10/8/2018 8:13:07 PM

0 Boost

Audi has had global monthly sales declines over the past 12 months just like BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Audi's consecutive monthly sales increase is for the U.S. market only.

In fact, Audi has done better than both BMW and Mercedes-Benz globally YTD in percentage terms.

MrEE - 10/6/2018 7:55:12 PM

+3 Boost

So had to clearance the last few months of noncompliant models, too bad they couldn't ship them to the US, I would consider at half off.

rockreid - 10/6/2018 8:10:57 PM

-6 Boost

So as it turns out Audi has most likely been committing serial fraud for years now, and using this Q and perhaps the next to burn the books and start over. Only now, years after the fact, does it seem the top Execs at VAG are being arrested and going to jail for what has been the largest case of Felony Fraud in human history. The era of diesel is over for pssenger cars. It is now EV all the way for future development.

ricks0me - 10/6/2018 8:38:51 PM

+2 Boost

Where is GermanNut with his spin on all of this ???

atc98092 - 10/6/2018 9:30:54 PM

0 Boost

These numbers are EU only, if I understand it correctly. Their North American sales have still been increasing year to year, although the last month barely made it if I remember correctly.

cidflekken - 10/6/2018 11:44:38 PM

+6 Boost

Well, hate to break the news to you, but EU sales account for over 45% of Audi's global sales. Pretty vital market for them.

atc98092 - 10/7/2018 11:24:16 AM

+1 Boost

Not saying at all that it's not an important market. All I'm saying is the NA market has continued with their year to year increases. Yes, North America isn't a particularly large market, but for Audi it still continues to grow, albeit not by spectacular numbers recently.

vdiv - 10/7/2018 11:46:45 AM

-8 Boost

The Teslas are coming! The Teslas are coming! Scheisse!!!

MDarringer - 10/7/2018 1:01:36 PM

+2 Boost

and their bumpers are falling off because it's raining.

countguy - 10/7/2018 12:42:47 PM

+3 Boost

You can only pad your numbers for so long.

johanjfl - 10/8/2018 7:39:02 AM

+2 Boost

Audi is a good wannabe brand. This is not unexpected. Audi Q5 falls short of BMW X3, new Audi A6 falls short of BMW 5 series, new Audi A8 falls short of Mercedes S Class etc etc. Why buy an almost as good?

GermanNut - 10/8/2018 8:08:57 PM

+1 Boost

Mercedes-Benz posted poor September global sales numbers too so Audi is not alone in struggling in certain markets. Mercedes-Benz's global sales fell 8.2% in September and are down 0.1% globally YTD. In fact, in Europe, Mercedes-Benz saw its sales fall 9.4%, in Asia-Pacific its sales fell 4.4% and in the Americas its sales fell 9.9%.

Mercedes-Benz sales fell in every major global market.

Audi is actually doing better than both Mercedes-Benz and BMW globally on a percentage basis, so Audi's numbers must be viewed in context of what its main competitors are doing.

cidflekken - 10/9/2018 12:56:15 PM

+1 Boost

Benz is still recovering from inventory challenges. What's Audi's excuse?

GermanNut - 10/8/2018 8:09:14 PM

+1 Boost

The Mercedes-Benz global sales data can be found here:

https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/ko/Mercedes-Benz-sells-more-than-200000-vehicles-worldwide-in-September.xhtml?oid=41475578&ls=L2VuL2luc3RhbmNlL2tvLnhodG1sP29pZD00ODM2MjU4JnJlbElkPTYwODI5JmZyb21PaWQ9NDgzNjI1OCZib3JkZXJzPXRydWUmcmVzdWx0SW5mb1R5cGVJZD00MDYyNiZ2aWV3VHlwZT10aHVtYnM!&rs=2

GermanNut - 10/9/2018 2:22:03 PM

+1 Boost

The same thing. In case you didn't know, the A6, A7, and A8 are all in process of being replaced. The old models have been sold and the new ones haven't come in at the same rate as yet. The new Q3 has also been announced so the old one is less desirable.

hangtime010 - 10/11/2018 4:40:14 PM

+1 Boost

People just want to continuously hate on Audi.
The diesel lies span the other German brands, but no one talks about that.
When BMW and M-B are turning over their models, it's ok to lose a few sales as people wait to buy the newer ones. But with Audi, it's "putting $$$ on the hood to get rid of them". Sheesh!