Audi Raised Annual Sales Target to 925,000 Cars

German carmaker Audi today reported its October sales, up 0.4 percent (82,750 cars), showing an improvement in the demand for luxury cars. The company’s sales figures were much better than anticipated, and the carmaker upgraded its annual sales target to 925,000 for the year.

In January, Audi had been the only premium carmaker to issue a specific sales target for 2009. At that point, Audi was aiming to sell around 900,000 vehicles, which was some ten percent down on 2008.

In China only, Audi said it had already beaten its 2008 record for car sales on the market and expects to sell over 130,000 cars there this year. In October alone, sales were 50.7 percent up on those of October 2008 with 14,510 units.

“Our sales figures worldwide have developed much better than expected,” stated Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management for Marketing and Sales at Audi AG. “The Audi Q5 is emerging as one of our most successful models. And in particular the A5 and A6 model lines are selling well. We are therefore upgrading our worldwide sales target to 925,000 cars.”

In markets such as Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the brand was able to increase its market share. However, the overall sales figures for October in Western Europe total of around 50,750 cars was 8.0 percent down on the 2008 figure.

In the United States, Audi of America sold 7,358 cars in October, 1.1 percent fewer than in the prior-year month. However, the Audi brand strengthened its position there and achieved an 8.3 percent share of the premium market.