Audi’s global sales up 10 percent in September

Ingolstadt, October 7, 2013: German luxury carmaker Audi AG has registered a 10 percent sales growth in September 2013, with around 150,300 new Audis going home to customers. The company continued to benefit from growing sales in the United States (+6.2 percent) and double-digit growth rates in China (+28.2 percent). Also in Europe, Audi concluded the month of September with a positive comparison to last year (+3.0 percent). In India, it sold 965 units (-4.5 percent) in September 2013. In calendar year 2013 till date, Audi AG’s worldwide sales increased from January to September by 7.6 percent to around 1,180,750 cars.

“Despite significantly more difficult conditions in many key markets, we closed the first three quarters again with stronger sales than in the same period last year. We thus continue to perform better in every region around the world than the respective overall automobile market,” said Luca de Meo, member of the Board of Management for Sales at Audi AG. “In particular, the Q3, Q5 and A3 Sportback were driving our sales.”

Since the beginning of the year, about 150,400 units of the entire A3 family have already been delivered. Furthermore, the most recent addition to this model series, the A3 saloon, was launched at dealers in Europe two weeks ago.

In China, the A3 saloon will arrive on the market next year. In September, SUV sales contributed to Audi achieving strong double-digit growth: up 28.2 percent to 45,530 cars in China. The Q3 and Q5, both produced in Changchun, accounted for around 72 per-cent of this sales growth. And also the A4 L, which is produced locally too, drove sales with a growth of 41.1 percent. In total, deliveries in China have climbed across all models by 20.6 percent to 358,213 units since January.

In the United States, the 13,065 deliveries in September equated to an increase of 6.2 percent with the Q5 performing particularly well. The demand of US customers for the popular compact SUV climbed 44.9 percent to 3,268 cars. Altogether, 114,411 customers in the US bought Audis in the first three quarters of the year, an increase of 13.6 percent.

In Mexico, the brand grew by 31.5 percent from January to September. In Brazil, sales were up 29.1 percent. In the future, the company aims strengthen its position in South America considerably. Beginning in 2015, Audi will start local production in Brazil, manufacturing the A3 saloon and the Q3 in the southern city of São José dos Pinhais.

In Europe sales climbed by 3.0 percent to around 74,350 units, thanks in a good part to the new A3 Sportback launched in February. In the UK, Audi sold 26,070 cars, a growth of 16.4 percent. In Germany sales rose 2.5 percent and in the Netherlands 11.8 percent. In contrast, the strained economic environment continued to impact sales results in many European markets. In Spain, deliveries fell by 1.4 percent, in France by 7.3 percent, and in Italy, the month ended with a drop of 11.7 percent. Altogether, Audi sold around 564,800 units in Europe in the first three quarters, concluding the first nine months only slightly below the level of the previous year (-1.6%).