Audi AG follows success in major auto markets of the world in August 2012

Audi, the completely owned division of Volkswagen Group, witnessed a positive movement on its sales chart in all the major global auto markets in August 2012. During the period, the company delivered 108,100 units globally, marking a growth of 14.9 per cent when compared with the sales of year-ago period. These figures indicate that around 961,000 buyers chose to Audi from the beginning of 2012, reporting a surge of 12.7 per cent. A major increase in the auto maker's August sales was mainly driven by a strong demand of Audi Q3, A1 Sportback and few luxury models.

In China, the company expanded by 24 per cent, whereas August was another record setting period for the car maker in United States as it reported a surge of 13 per cent there.

Considering the difficult market trend in Europe and changeover of A3, Audi moved up by 8 per cent in the region. New edition of this compact car was introduced first on the European turf by the end of August.

Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, Rupert Stadler, quoted, “The A3 is arriving at just the right time, for Europe as well as for the United States and China. We want to grow significantly in their premium compact segments with the A3 model family in the coming years. In total we want to sell considerably more units of the new A3 family during its lifecycle than we did of its very successful predecessor.”

Till date, the company sold around 1.877 million vehicles of new generation A3 against the older generation model. Continuing on the statement of Stadler, Luca de Meo, Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG for Marketing and Sales, said, “New models such as the A3 and the updated Q5, which is also being launched at the moment, will make Audi even stronger in the difficult market environment currently prevailing in Europe.”

In the first 8 months of 2012, Audi expanded its sales by 3.6 percent, amounting to 501,900 units in the European auto market. With these figures, the luxury auto brand achieved a milestone of delivering over 5 lac units in its home continent between January and August 2012. In the process of attaining this milestone, all the three major European sales markets of the company contributed in its August sales.

In Germany, Audi sold 20,180 units and achieved a growth of 9 per cent under the review of sales recorded in corresponding period last year. With a growth of 9 per cent, the company grabbed a market share of 10 per cent, wherein a major chunk was accounted by A1 Sportback, Q3 and A6 Avant. In UK, the auto maker recorded an increase of 14.7 per cent with 4,144 units delivered in the entire month. Considering the sales of company in its third main market, France, the figures surged to 3,706 units with a growth rate of 13.8 per cent.

On the other hand, in Italy, the demand for Audi vehicles witnessed a dip of 3.9 per cent, amounting to 2,408 units against the figures recorded in August last year. Sales of the luxury brand significantly expanded in several other countries including Spain, wherein it sold 2,270 vehicles with a surge of 7.5 per cent. In Austria, the company managed to sell 1,463 cars, marking a growth of 15.4 per cent and in Switzerland, the car maker sold 1,661 units with 62.5 per cent increase. Considering the sales in Turkey, the brand with four rings delivered 1,198 models in the country, which marked a growth of 42.3 per cent under the review of units sold in August 2011.

Becoming a part of positive trend, Russia also came up as a positive region for Audi with deliveries of 2,972 luxury vehicles, registering an increase of 47.9 per cent against the figures reported in same period last year. The increase in sales of Russia as well as other prominent markets was mainly driven by its compact SUV Q3 as the company overall delivered close to 52,200 units in Europe this year.

In China, which is considered as the largest auto market of the world, the company managed to sell around 34,800 units. A major volume was driven by Audi Q7 and Q5, which expanded by 39.4 per cent and 34.1 per cent, respectively when compared with the sales record of corresponding tenure of last year. The Chinese customers also showed a penchant for Audi A7 Sportback in August as the company delivered 1,008 units of the luxury model in the country. In a cumulative approach, the auto maker sold 261,548 units in its largest sales market, reporting a surge of 33.1 per cent.

Apart from Russia and China, Audi also expanded significantly in other BRIC markets during the period. In India, the car maker delivered 726 models with an increase of 42.4 per cent, whereas in Brazil the car maker expanded by 9.8 per cent with sales standing at 550 units. In South Africa, it posted growth of 35 per cent with 1,500 deliveries and in South Korea, figures stood at 1,260 vehicles with a growth of 38.5 per cent.

Considering the sales in United States, where Audi introduced the new generation models of A4 and A5, the company delivered 11,527 units during the month with a surge of 13 per cent. In the region, the demand for Q7 SUV expanded by 32.1 per cent, which mainly drove the overall sales of the company. Between January and August 2012, the auto major delivered a total of 88,392 units in US, which is parallel to the growth of 17.5 per cent. In the first eight months of 2012, the fleet of success in US was mainly driven by A6 sedan as the company delivered 11,844 units of the model during the period.