AUDI AG has started the second half of the year with higher sales than in July 2014. Despite forthcoming model changeovers and ongoing difficult conditions in some key markets, the four rings achieved slight sales growth of 1.4 percent in July, taking the total to around 146,100 units. While the Americas (+19.6%) again gathered pace as growth driver for Audi and deliveries continued to increase substantially in Western Europe (+6.1%), sales in the Asia-Pacific region (-9.2%) and Eastern Europe (-3.2%) remained below the prior-year levels. Around 1,048,450 customers worldwide have chosen an Audi since January, 3.5 percent more than one year earlier.
“Audi’s July sales in Europe and the Americas continued to make very good progress. In China, the market situation has remained challenging as expected, exacerbated by the stock market turmoil,” says Luca de Meo, Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG. “At the same time, we are preparing together with our Chinese dealers for model changeovers for many of our best-sellers in the market. During this transition, we remain committed to a healthy and sustainable business performance given intensified competition in the market.”
In the past month, Audi as the country’s leading premium brand sold 42,267 cars in China, 12.5 percent less than in July 2014. Cumulative sales since January total 316,120 units, which is on a par with the previous year (-0.3%). The very high sales level which Audi is achieving despite the current slower market becomes apparent when measured against its sales performance in recent years: in the first seven months, Audi already handed over more cars to Chinese customers than in the whole of 2011. In that year, the sales total after 12 months came to 313,036 units. Compared with July 2011, Audi’s lead over its core competitors in China’s premium market is today roughly twice as large. Among the next-biggest markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia in particular maintained growth at a double-digit rate in July (+14.7% to 1,760 cars). In Japan too (+13.8% to 2,115 cars), the four rings registered a clearly positive sales month.
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