With record sales of more than 1.74m cars, Audi for the first time increased its revenue to more than EUR53bn (US$57bn) in 2014. Operating profit amounted to EUR5.15bn and the operating return on sales of 9.6% was at the upper end of the carmaker’s strategic target of 8-10%.
After taking increased financial income into consideration, profit before tax increased to approximately EUR6bn with a return on sales before tax of 11.1%.
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Audi plans to expand its product range from 52 to 60 models by 2020 spending more than EUR24bn on new products and technologies by 2019 while expanding its global production network. Worldwide, the group plans to recruit more than 6,000 new employees this year.
At its annual press conference in Ingolstadt, board chairman Rupert Stadler said the brand had delivered more in 2014 than promised.
“After a very positive start to this year, we aim to achieve a new record for unit sales in 2015.”
Stadler described the 2014 performance as “convincing”, increasing unit sales in all regions and setting new records in 50 countries. Worldwide, Audi sold 1,741,129 cars, up 10% from 2013 and passing its sales target of 1.7m.
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By GlobalDataManagement board member for finance Axel Strotbek said: “Our key financials show that we are preparing systematically for the future and nevertheless operating very profitably.
“In view of our upcoming record investment, we will continue our systematic focus on efficiency, because we want to achieve a net cash inflow of more than EUR2bn in 2015.”
Technology chief Ulrich Hackenberg said the new Q7, R8 and A4 would be the highlights of the brand’s model initiative in 2015. The Q7 was unveiled at the Detroit show in January and the Q7 e-tron quattro made its debut in Geneva last week – the first plug-in hybrid with a diesel engine and quattro drive.
The company grew by 5,732 employees in 2014 to more than 80,000. In order to strengthen its workforce with qualified personnel it will continue to recruit in 2015. In Germany alone, the brand intends to hire an additional 4,000 people this year.
