Audi posts record Q1 and March sales

German luxury carmaker Audi concluded the best first quarter in the company’s history along with the most successful sales month. In March, the carmaker’s global sales increased by 4.6 percent to a monthly high of around 186,100, bringing the cumulative sales in the first quarter to around 455,750 cars, up 4 percent year-on-year (YoY).

Audi’s growth during the first three months was mainly driven by strong demand in Europe and America along with increases in China.

Commenting on the sales Dietmar Voggenreiter, member of the board of management for Sales and Marketing at Audi said, “The record start to 2016 is evidence of our global brand strength and of the success of our entire range of models, most notably the new Audi A4 and the new Q7. The strong demand in the first quarter confirms that we are on the right track to achieving another sales record for the full year in 2016.”

In March, global sales of the Audi A4 increased by 14.6 percent with United States, where the latest generation of the model has only been available in recent weeks, posting a 36.3 percent increase in sales of the model. Since the beginning of the year, global demand for Audi’s top‑selling model has climbed by 4 percent. The performance of the Ingolstadt‑based carmaker was further strengthened by the new Audi Q7, as well as the full‑size SUV achieved double‑digit growth each month since it was launched in the summer of 2015. The automaker sold around 9,600 Q7 to customers around the world in March, up 93.1 percent. Since January, its global sales have grown by 89 percent to around 23,550 units. In the same period, the company even tripled sales of the Q7 model in Europe (+177.6% to around 10,450 units).

Across all models, Audi’s quarterly sales in Europe increased by 7.3 percent to around 222,350 units. The interest of European customers also remained high in March, surpassing the previous month by 7.3 percent to around 97,300 units. This was fueled primarily by double‑digit growth rates from Germany (+10.8% to 30,923 units), Italy (+28.7% to 5,814 units) and Spain (+14.4% to 5,137 units).

Audi also posted further gains in the Americas in the first quarter. With around 57,500 sales in the region, the company registered 5.6 percent YoY growth. In March, the brand with four rings sold 2,805 units in Canada alone, corresponding to an increase of 42.9 percent. In the United States, 18,392 customers chose an Audi, up 7.5 percent YoY. Business in the market was strengthened in particular by the Audi Q3.

Following a year of consolidation in 2015, Audi is once again on track for growth in China. Cumulative sales in the market were up by 4.7 percent to 139,540 units. Last month 50,986 cars were sold to customers in China, an increase of 5.4 percent. Audi saw gains in the compact class in particular with market demand for the Audi A3 increasing by 34.7 percent in March.

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