AUDI AG: accelerated growth in sales in April

With the start of the second quarter, sales at AUDI AG are once again showing stronger growth. The brand sold more than 86,700 cars worldwide in the past month. While sales figures over the first four months rose by a total of 1.7 percent to around 338,000 cars, the rate of growth in April alone stood at 2.9 percent. The biggest drivers of the increase in sales were the Eastern European and Asia-Pacific markets.

The brand with the four rings achieved this result despite the current model changeover in its highest-volume model line: The Audi A4 Avant has just been introduced in some European markets, and the A4 Sedan is currently arriving in the first Asian countries. Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler: “The result in April is a foretaste of the significant growth in sales that we expect in the second half of the year. With full availability of the A4 in most major markets, we’ll pick up momentum in the third quarter and we’ll achieve the millionth car sold by year’s end as announced.”

Audi recorded particularly high growth rates in April in the strategically important Asia-Pacific and Eastern European markets. With around 12,800 cars sold, sales in the Asia-Pacific region went up by 18 percent compared with sales in April 2007. In China alone (including Hong Kong), the company’s biggest foreign market in April, AUDI AG increased sales by 16,3 percent to some 10,028 cars. During the first four months, Audi sold 52,300 cars in the region, an increase of about 20 percent.

In China, the brand handed over 40,453 cars to customers, representing a jump of 22,7 percent. In Eastern Europe, Audi sold about 13 percent more cars than in the same month last year: here, 3,800 customers bought a new Audi. Sales in Russia alone were up by 17,4 percent, with 1,630 cars sold. Over the first four month, with 14,800 cars, Audi
sold almost 15 percent more in the region than during the corresponding period of last year; in Russia the brand boosted sales in this time period by 25 percent to 5,510 cars.

Credits: Jarvis