Volkswagen's luxury divisions Audi and Porsche have recently recorded a steep increase in their annual sales of 2013, owing to high demand for luxury vehicles in the global markets. Also, the chief reason for such an inflation is new models launched by these divisions during last year. Reports suggest that the luxury car market has largely intensified in mass markets of China, Russia and India whereas, there is a decrement seen in the US, as buyers have become more diligent. The abovementioned brands along with other franchise of Bentley are expected to remain the key players for the German auto major this year also and Volkswagen has high expectations from them.
Audi recorded an escalation of 8.3 per cent with 1.58 million cars being sold in 2013. Also, revamping the existing models of A3 benefited the company. On the other hand, Porsche posted an inclination of 15 per cent with 1,62,145 deliveries made last year. This share is majorly withheld by the rise in demand for its iconic sportscars, Boxster and Cayman, which were sold in more than double volumes as against the figures of previous year. Furthermore, Bentley's sales witnessed a steep rise of 19 per cent in 2013 with deliveries of 10,120 units.
In the past nine months, these 3 flagships have contributed a profit of 8.56 billion Euros to Volkswagen. It was evenly distributed as earnings of Audi amounted to 3.74 billion Euros, followed by Porsche marking 1.89 billion Euros and Bentley providing a share of 98 million Euros. It must be noted that Italian sportscar maker, Lamborghini is also a subsidiary of Volkswagen, whose profit shares have been tagged along with Audi. Among the largest global automotive markets, China generated an elevation of 21 per cent in sales growth of Audi, followed by a rise of 15 per cent in UK. Also, the rise in demand of Porsche's vehicles rose to 21 per cent and 20 per cent, in markets of US and China respectively.
With such enormous figures, the aforementioned franchises are immensely exultant and so is there owner, Volkswagen Group. A noteworthy fact that comes to limelight is that Audi also aims to vanquish the likes of its biggest adversary, BMW from luxury car segment. It also plans to dominate the premium vehicle sales by the end of decade. Audi has perceived extols on a wide scale in international markets for its new innovations and has gained a strong repute globally. Chief Executive Officer of Audi, Rupert Stadler said in a statement, “In the past four years alone, Audi has attracted more than 600,000 new customers.” These statistics fathom the rise in brand image of Audi in the past years and company ensures to appease its fan following in coming years as well.
A similar trend has been witnessed in Indian auto market where Audi had just crossed the 10,000 delivery mark in 2013, for the first time since its advent. It completely overhauled its contenders Mercedes-Benz and BMW in annual luxury car sales. And this year as well it has kept its spirit alive and has begun the year with a massive bang called Audi RS 7. Upcoming time will mark Audi launching new and refurbished cars and it will be interesting to see what statistics are created by the German car maker this year.
