Best First Quarter in Company History
Source: Audi AG

INGOLSTADT, Germany - Audi has finished the first quarter of 2005 with a new record for vehicle sales: 195,044 new cars were sold worldwide, an increase of 1.8 percent on the previous year's high figure (first quarter of 2004: 191,560). In the words of Ralph Weyler, Member of the Board for Marketing and Sales at AUDI AG: "We are clearly on course for a new record year."

Strong growth was achieved especially in Europe, at 9.8 percent. Some individual markets clearly bettered this: for example, sales in Great Britain were up by 10.2 percent to 25,724, in Spain by 21.6 percent to 14,395, in France by 24.2 percent to 10,090 and in Belgium by 39.6 percent to 7,547 units. High increases were also recorded in Eastern Europe. The sales volume in Russia, for example, expanded by 48.8 percent to 1,225 new cars. Sales in Germany were up by 1.8 percent to 56,141 units, clearly defying the general market trend.

The markets in which Audi recently set up its own importer companies, such as Australia and South Korea, also set new records.