Audi defies economic conditions and breaks sales records again

Audi sold some 82,400 automobiles to customers worldwide in October. Sales of the premium brand thus rose 7.2 percent in year-on-year comparison. During the first ten months of 2008, the Ingolstadt carmaker sold approximately 844,700 vehicles, up 3.3 percent on the same period last year. Audi registered growth both in the European as well as in the emerging Asian markets.

Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler said: "Audi is performing well, but our corporate performance is increasingly influenced by declining markets.

Despite the currently difficult overall economic environment, we will reach our sales target of one million vehicles for 2008," said Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management for Marketing and Sales of AUDI AG.

The launch of the new SUV Audi Q5 in mid-November will further strengthen sales of the brand. This year's innovations Audi A4 Avant, Audi A3 and Audi A6 spurred sales growth of 2.3 percent in the first ten months of the year in Europe (excluding Germany), where Audi delivered 388,053 vehicles to customers (2007: 379,281). A total of 34,578 cars were sold in October alone, up 9.4 percent (2007: 31,596). In Italy, one of the most important European sales markets for Audi, sales rose 10.0 percent to 5,509 vehicles in October (2007: 5,008) despite the difficult overall market environment. This represents growth of 1.4 percent to 50,833 vehicles sold in the first ten months (2007: 50,130).

In the Asia-Pacific region, the brand with the four rings sold approximately 12,190 premium vehicles in October, 20.5 percent more than in October 2007 (10,115). In the first ten months, Audi achieved growth of 17.6 percent there, with the number of cars sold climbing to around 130,370 (2007: 110,876). In China (including Hong Kong), the Ingolstadt carmaker's second domestic market, Audi sales rose another 25.1 percent in October to some 9,600 vehicles (2007: 7,695).

Approximately 100,560 customers there purchased a premium automobile from Ingolstadt in the first ten months of the year, up 19.9 percent in year-on-year comparison (2007: 83,863).

Despite sales currently being stable, AUDI AG will use the Christmas break at its Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm sites to align production to individual levels of demand. Chairman Stadler said: "In some areas of production we will take advantage of the Christmas period to manoeuvre carefully into 2009."