MANILA, Philippines - In February, Audi AG delivered around 117,500 cars to customers around the world, 6.8 percent more than one year ago. Since the beginning of the year, the company’s unit sales have increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year to around 242,400 units.
Audi sales figures once again climbed in all regions around the world last month. Around one third of the volume growth was achieved in Europe. With significant increases in Germany, the UK and Italy, there was a 5.3 percent increase for the region. In China, Audi completed the sales month—shortened considerably by the Chinese New Year holiday—with a 6.9 percent increase over the February 2013 level.
“Audi continued the positive start of the year in February despite noticeable non-recurring effects in important overseas markets,†says Luca de Meo, Member of the Board of Management for Sales at Audi AG. “In Europe, several markets are gaining stability at what remains a low level. In this region we are already scoring with the new A3 Sedan*, which will also be launched in China and the US, its two most important sales markets, in the upcoming weeks.â€
The entire new A3 family achieves continued high rates of growth, up 43 percent in February to 19,568 units worldwide. In the full-size category, demand rose in particular for the A7 Sportback (+8.8%) and for the Q7, sales climbed by 31.8 percent to 4,589 cars.
In many Southern European countries, Audi has also recently sold more cars than one year ago, such as in Spain where deliveries increased by 1.6 percent to 4,149 cars, and above all in Italy with an increase of 16.0 percent to 4,202 units. Germany (+10.1% to 21,806 cars) and the UK (+8.3% to 4,820 cars) showed significant growth as well and confirmed the positive month for Audi in Europe (+5.3%). Over the first two months, around 111,600 deliveries account for growth of 6.5 percent in the region.
In the Americas, Brazil maintained January’s enormous pace of growth in February too: with 1,115 deliveries, Audi do Brasil brought in over three times the sales of February 2013 (+260.8%). In America, Audi is preparing for the launch of the A3 Sedan. The model developed specifically with a view to the wishes of American and Chinese customers will be launched in the US in April. Meanwhile, despite the effects of extreme winter weather conditions, sales by Audi of America in February reached the level of the prior-year month with 10,881 deliveries.
Among the markets in Asia, South Korea is becoming increasingly important for Audi: for February, the sales statistics were up 61.8 percent to 2,187 units, an increase of 42.3 percent since January. In February, Audi achieved an increase in the high double digits in Japan as well (+19.3% to 2,731 cars). In contrast, the New Year holiday dominated last month in China. On the remaining sales days, 32,358 customers received their Audi, up 6.9 percent. From January through February, Audi sales in China went up by 13.2 percent to 76,884 cars.