Audi sells 149,400 units in July, demand surges in China

German luxury carmaker Audi has announced its July sales numbers. Last month, it sold a total of 149,400 units, up 2.3 percent year-on-year.

The company says sales have risen in all three core regions – in North America by 5.9 percent, in Asia-Pacific by 4.4 percent and in Europe by 1.5 percent. The new A4 was the bestselling model worldwide with around 30,450 units and growth of 14.9 percent. Since January, the carmaker has delivered around 1,102,650 cars to customers from its entire portfolio, an increase of 5.2 percent.

“At present we are facing numerous economic and political challenges in key markets. Despite these increasingly difficult overall conditions, the global demand for Audi models has remained stable,” says Dietmar Voggenreiter, Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at Audi AG. “With our three strong regional pillars – our business in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific – we are well placed to offset market fluctuations globally.”

Sales in Europe reflect a very mixed picture in July: While the demand in key markets such as Italy (+28.6% to 6,252 cars), Spain (+13.8% to 4,784 units) and Germany (+6.9% to 24,546 units) increased substantially, the momentum in France slowed down marginally in the past month (-3.1% to 5,018 units).

In the United Kingdom, the change in generation for the A3, the bestselling Audi model in the market, was reflected in delivery totals. Due to strong demand for the previous generation, the A3 was sold out in the UK earlier than planned at the end of its lifecycle. July sales in the United Kingdom thus fell by 9.9 percent to 11,554 units. Cumulative deliveries in the United Kingdom increased by 2.3 percent to 101,489 cars since the start of the year. In Europe as a whole, the carmaker sold around 523,650 cars over the past seven months, equivalent to a year-on-year increase of 7.5 percent.

Business in North America showed a balanced surge: In Mexico (+18.7% to 1,374 units), Canada (+14.7% to 2,451 units) and the United States, the company saw sales increase further in the past month. In the US market, sales rose 4.0 percent to 18,364 cars. As in many other markets, the successful new A4 in particular boosted sales. Audi of America delivered 2,743 units of the new A4, 12.7 percent more than in July 2015. Since January, customers in the US have taken delivery of 115,298 units, an increase of 3.6 percent. In North America, sales in the same period increased by 5.6 percent to around 142,100 cars.

Deliveries in the Asia-Pacific region are also up since the start of the year, with around 392,600 units (+4.0%) sold. The positive trend for Audi is holding up particularly in China. Here the company achieved the strongest absolute volume growth in its top 20 markets in July with 46,454 cars and an increase of 9.9 percent. In addition to the A3 Sedan, SUV sales were on a high in China. For instance, the monthly sales of the Q3, Q5 and Q7 exceeded the comparative figure from 2015 by 20.5 percent. Since the turn of the year, the Ingolstadt-based carmaker has consistently increased its sales in the market each month. Overall, the company has delivered 336,580 cars to customers in China since January, an increase of 6.5 percent. The new version of the top-selling model A4L will be launched in a few weeks.

Read more: Audi sells 953,200 cars in first six months of 2016, up 5.6% YoY