Audi sales are motoring strongly

In Ireland, Audi maintained its position as premium market leader taking 5.8% of the total car market in February, with a total of 617 units sold.

Mark O’Connell, general manager of sales at Audi Ireland, said they had a record February and globally it was the best February in the history of the company.

Great position

“We are already in a great position to achieve our targets for the year,” he insisted. “Audi’s continued investment has ensured a growth of 22.7% year-to-date, despite the total car market being down 14.9%.”

Key models for Audi Ireland include the A6, Q5, the all new A3 Sportback and the Audi flagship A8, which is leading the D segment for the second year in-a-row.

Model changeover

For Audi, February was marked by the model changeover of the strong selling A3 Sportback in many key markets. In Europe alone, two-thirds of all A3 customers have traditionally chosen the five-door version.

This makes the A3 Sportback the best-selling body variant of Audi’s entire model line-up in the region. Despite the changeover to the new A3 Sportback generation, Audi was still able to repeat the delivery totals of the previous February across all models in a strained European market; up 0.1% to around 54,900 cars sold in February.

Increasing demand

Above all, further increasing demand for the A4 Avant and the new-generation Q5 bolstered business for the four rings on its home continent. Globally, the A1 and the Q3 showed strong gains as well; sales figures for the compact SUV at around 8,300units sold were 41.6% higher than in the same month last year.

Among the European markets, Audi attained particularly high growth rates in many Scandinavian countries in February – such as Sweden with an 18.2% gain to 1,484 cars compared to February 2012 and Denmark with a 28.7% increase to 655 deliveries.

Strong growth

Switzerland (+13.2% to 1,641 cars) and Russia (+20.2% to 2,800 cars) also reported strong growth.

In Spain, Audi also closed February with a gain over the prior year, with a 3.3% increase to 4,082 automobiles.