Despite a rise in European and US market shares, Audi today said its sales in March fell 10.7% over the same month last year, to 90,400 cars.
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“Thanks in part to the successfully launched Q5, our order intake is now significantly increasing,” said Audi sales and marketing chief Peter Schwarzenbauer. “The trend is positive: Our monthly results have been continually improving since January, a difficult month for everybody.”
The company said that in Europe and the US, sales exceeded expectations in March.
US sales declined 19.4% to 6,433 cars. However, the carmaker increased its share in the premium market by 1.3 percentage points to 7.8%. In North and South America combined, Audi sold nearly 8,500 cars in March – 14.5% fewer than in the preceding year.
In Canada sales of the brand were up in the month to 979 units, a year-on-year rise of 25.4%. In western Europe, Audi sold 61,200 cars in March – a decline of 12.9%.
Audi said that it had fared comparably well in a difficult overall market with its market share expected to reach 4.3%, up from 4.1% in 2008.
In the region Asia-Pacific, Audi increased its sales by about 5% compared with the preceding year, with a total of around 15,600 cars sold – thanks especially to the success in China, its second-largest foreign market in March.
Here, the brand recorded its strongest month ever with 11,848 cars sold in China (including Hong Kong) representing an increase of 6.6%.
This success was primarily attributable to the newly launched long wheelbase A4, the company said.
