"We want to make Audi the most attractive premium brand worldwide," said Audi Chairman Stadler. The company has taken a step closer to achieving that goal by meeting its stated objective of selling one million cars in 2008 for the first time in its history.
With about 1,003,400 cars sold worldwide, Audi increased its sales volume by 4.1% over the prior year (2007: 964,151). With the newly introduced Audi Q5 and the revised A4 family, sales in December increased by 17.4% over last December, to around 82,800 units (2007: 70,523).
"This 13th record year in a row is a success achieved by the entire Audi team. We'll continue to draw on this strength in the difficult year of 2009," said says Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG.
In the past year, the Ingolstadt-based firm launched 12 new or upgraded models. This gave Audi the advantage of having the youngest model range in the premium segment. The most important introductions were the Audi A4 sedan, which was rolled out in Europe in November 2007, the Audi A4 Avant, which followed in April, product upgrades of the A3 and A6, and the brand-new Q5.
"We will keep up our model initiative as planned: In 2009 we'll continue to offer a succession of new models," said Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management for Marketing and Sales.
Audi achieved notable growth in the European markets and in the Asia-Pacific region. In Western Europe, unit sales of around 53,900 in December surpassed the previous December by 22.7% (2007: 43,969). In the entire year of 2008, Audi sold some 667,000 cars in this region, 2.5% more than 2007 (650,407). These excellent sales volumes also resulted in record market shares in Western Europe and Germany.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Audi delivered new cars to around 14,000 customers in December, an increase of 15.6% (2007: 12,097). During the entire year, 155,100 customers bought an Audi in this region - 15.6% more than in 2007.In the USA, the company's third largest export market, sales of 87,760 cars in 2008 amounted to a 6.1% drop from the prior year (2007: 93,506). In December Audi sold 7,712 units here, 9.3% fewer than in the prior year (2007: 8,504).