Audi Sales Surge 39 Percent in January

Spectacular as it may seem, the nearly 40 percent jump in sales registered by German carmaker Audi are not all that impressive, as we are confident other carmakers around the world will post similar performances. The reason is that January 2009, the month to which the current figures are compared to, was one of the weakest for carmakers.

Audi sold 77,800 cars this January, with 16,798 in China (50 percent over the same month of last year), 6,510 cars in the US, up 37.9 percent and 33,300 cars sold in Europe outside Germany, meaning a 23 percent growth.

“Due to the current order registrations, we expect a strong first quarter in 2010,” Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management for Marketing and Sales at Audi said in a release.

"Contributing to the good sales situation is the new Audi A5 Sportback, which is now fully available for the first time, as well as the highly successful Audi Q5, which has outsold its competitors’ models by a significant margin in Europe."

“With this successful start we’re on target to reach the record we set in 2008 of one million cars sold, which we want to achieve again in 2010.”

In its home market, Audi sold 11,657, only 9.3 percent over January 2009. In Great Britain, Audi’s sales grew in January by 42.9 percent to 9,004 units, while in France Audi sold 3,690 cars, nearly the same level as last year.