Audi Up 13.6 Percent Globally

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: October 8th, 2012

Smiles in Ingolstadt and Wolfsburg, where Audi contributes 40 percent of Volkswagen Group’s profits: Audi’s global sales climbed 13.6 percent in September to 136,600 units delivered worldwide. 1,097,500 cars were sold in the first nine months, 12.8 percent more than in the prior-year period.

Global Sales Audi September 2012Sept’12Sept’11YoYYTD ’12YTD’11YoYWorld136,600120,19313.6%1,097,500973,15412.8%Europe72,20067,2207.4%574,100551,9254.0%Germany20,71220,0023.5%198,777185,0227.4%UK22,38918,65320.0%101,59393,7818.3%France5,0204,9491.4%47,01246,4491.2%Italy4,8025,713-15.9%38,90146,736-16.8%Spain2,2952,634-12.9%29,43632,478-9.4%Russia3,1502,00357.3%25,44217,80342.9%USA12,3029,72526.5%100,69484,98118.5%Mexico90366635.6%6,4505,50817.1%Asia-Pacific43,00035,70820.4%351,400272,18929.1%China35,51229,47620.5%297,060226,01031.4%India1,01155582.2%6,4234,21052.6%

Speaking of China: Remember when everybody predicted the imminent demise of foreign luxury cars in China, because the Chinese government would only buy domestic? TTAC was among the very few that did not buy the story. Audi’s sales in China were up 31.4 percent in the first nine months of the year. Despite weak sales in Spain and Italy, Audi’s sales in Europe were up 7.4 percent in September. Sales in the U.S. (+26.5 percent) and China (+20.5%) were especially strong.

PS: Note to global carmakers who want to emulate Audi’s success: Start by emulating the way Audi delivers global sales numbers.

#Audi #BertelSchmitt #Germany #September2012

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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12 comments

LordDetroitofLondon on Oct 08, 2012

Man, they must be buying a lot of Audis in the U.K.! More YTD sales that the U.S.! Especially, considering the size of the country..

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- Mike978 on Oct 08, 2012
  
  +1 - I was looking at the German sales and how Audi sells more in the UK than their home and larger market Germany. Audi really does very well in the UK. It does show the potential Audi has in the US if they build reliable vehicles that luxury buyers want.
  
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- CJinSD on Oct 08, 2012
  
  Audi sells a bunch of econoboxes in the UK that don't fit their US branding ambitions. What percentage of their UK sales are £14K A1s and baby ute Q3s? Audis would sell huge here too, if they undercut Honda Civics by thousands the way the A1 does in the UK.
  
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- Tstag on Oct 08, 2012
  
  @CJinSD Actually I suspect it's not the Q3 or A1 that's selling strongly in the UK. The Q3 seems a rare sight on our roads and I have'nt really noticed that many A1's. However people are jumping out of the BMW 3 series into the A4. The UK sells more BMW 3 series models than Ford Mondeo's so my guess is that is where Audi are doing well. The trend in the UK is to ditch the likes of Ford for more premium marques, and if you look at the sales charts its BMW, JLR and Audi that are the big winners these days. On a side note the Evoque is very very popular here and I think that's hurting Audi Q3 sales.
  
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- Mike978 on Oct 08, 2012
  
  @CJinSD CJ - a fair question, but the data doesn't support your conclusion. Tstag is correct. http://bestsellingcarsblog.com/2012/07/29/uk-6-months-2012-now-available-with-the-top-347-all-models-ranking/ Audi in the first half of 2012 sold the following vehicles in the UK : # % A3 16352 24.8 A1 10639 16.1 A4 10289 15.6 A6 7498 11.4 A5 7185 10.9 TT 3332 5.1 Q5 2920 4.4 Q3 2659 4.0 Q7 1546 2.3 A7 1192 1.8 A8 627 1.0 S5 526 0.8 S3 454 0.7 RS3 275 0.4 S4 275 0.4 R8 131 0.2 Total 65900 100.0 As you can see the A1 and Q3 accounted for 20% of sales, so probably way less than you thought. You also see quite a few sales of the expensive, brand building, Audi's. So even if you strip out the A1 and Q3 (A1 certainly profitable since it is GBP4K more than the donor Polo and people option these up) you would have around 20,000 monthly sales in the UK compared to 12,300 in the US and the US is 5 times bigger by population. So the original comment stands. I was also shocked to see the base Q3 is GBP25K, so certainly not cheap or an econobox (in price, even if it is in size).
  
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- CJinSD on Oct 08, 2012
  
  @CJinSD Fair enough, but I would bet that the US sales volume of the A3 is closer to that of the A8 than it is to the A6's or A4's. Since I moved a few months ago and no longer see the same white A3 over and over again, I now hardly ever see any A3s at all.
  
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- Mike978 on Oct 08, 2012
  
  @CJinSD I agree that the A3 is a rare sight in the US with very small sales. But even if you strip that out over half of UK sales are the A4 and above vehicles. So certainly comparable to the US. I am amazed how well expensive cars sell in the UK, considering the cost of living there.
  
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Sundowner on Oct 08, 2012

I might be the only one saying this, but I think Audi is working on borrowed time. They have homogenized their bread-and-butter product offerings to the point that they are becoming generic. Even sister brands under the VAG umbrella are engaging in increasing amounts of brand engineering of platforms. Sooner or later, that will bite them in arse GM style.

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- Th009 on Oct 08, 2012
  
  Who else in the VW Group is using ("brand engineering") Audi's MLB architecture?
  
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- Sundowner on Oct 08, 2012
  
  @th009 Not the MLB (that I know of) but the A3 shares roots with the golf, and the crossbreeding among the SUV's is rampant. Q7 sees live as a VW Tourareg and a Porsche Cayenne. The Q5 will see life as a Porsche whatever (I can't keep track of the silly names) Q5 I believe is MLB architecture, too, so there you go
  
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- Th009 on Oct 08, 2012
  
  @th009 Yes, the Cajun will be the first non-Audi application of MLB. Won't cheapen the Audi technology, though, methinks ...
  
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Type57SC on Oct 09, 2012

That has some horrible orange peal on the inner facing side of the trunk.

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