Volkswagen Group brand Audi is aiming to sell 100,000 more cars in the UK this year than it managed at the start of the 21st century just 13 years ago, helped by what it calls the “flight to premium” by buyers.

In 1999 Audi was a 40,000 cars a year brand in Britain with 1.8% of the market, but has been on an upward trajectory ever since with the exception of 2009 following the banking collapse.

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Last year Audi UK sold a record 123,622 cars for a 6% market share and is confident of pushing that to more than 140,000 in 2013.

The challenge will be helped by the imminent arrival of the new A3 Sportback. The five-door Sportback and three-door A3 are expected to account for more than a fifth of Audi’s UK business.

The Sportback goes on sale in mid-March with three engines and three trim lines priced from GBP19,825. Later in the year three more engines will be added along with quattro all wheel drive versions and a wider choice of models with the S tronic double clutch automated gearbox.

The first A3 saloon, high-performance S3 versions and a new 181bhp 2.0-litre diesel are also in the pipeline. Next year there will also be a replacement for the A3 convertible.

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Audi claims to have invented the concept of the “premium compact hatchback” with the first A3 in 1996 and continued to dominate the sub-class in the UK until 2011 when the BMW 1 Series was the top seller for the first time. The battle to be top dog has now become a three-way fight with the arrival of the first conventional Mercedes A-Class hatchback.

“We have been in transition for a couple of years, first with the introduction of the A1 in 2011 and then last year with the run-out of the previous A3,” Audi said.

“But it’s a fight we think we are winning again – and victory in the ring would be hollow without worthy opposition.”