The brand with the four rings recorded a double-digit growth in the first seven months of the year delivering 852,900 vehicles worldwide, an increase of 12.3 percent over the same period last year.
In July, Audi sold 119,600 automobiles globally, up 12.9 percent from the same month in 2011. The German company expects an even better second half thanks to the arrival of the new A3 hatchback.
“Following this successful start to the second half, we are expecting the new A3 to give us an extra lift over the coming months,” said Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. The new A3 in three-door guise will start arriving in European dealerships at the end of August.
The difficult economic environment in some European markets didn’t stop Audi from reporting a 5.5 percent increase to 60,800 deliveries in July, while the company improved its sales from the beginning of the year by 3.4 percent to 454,200 units.
Keep in mind that Audi’s European sales include Russia where the automaker has sold 19,320 cars from January through July, up 40.1 percent over last year.
In its home market of Germany, the Ingolstadt-based carmaker saw its sales from the beginning of the year grow by 7.8 percent to 157,885 units.
“This growth was fueled in particular by the A1 Sportback, the A6 Avant and the Q3,” said Audi in a statement.
According to the automaker, from January through July, some 14,500 units of the Q3 were sold to customers in Germany.
In other parts of the world, Audi’s January-July sales in the USA increased by 18.2 percent to 76,865 vehicles, while in China, the company improved on the deliveries total for the prior-year period by 34.6 percent, with sales of 226,748.
