In Europe, the full-size class strengthened Audi further. In addition to the Q7 (+103.8% to around 27,050 automobiles), sales of the A6 rose significantly with an increase of 9.9 percent to around 99,800 cars delivered. Across all models, European sales rose by 4.8 percent to the new record of around 799,950 units. In December, the first full month for the new A4, European deliveries climbed by 17.5 percent to around 57,650 units. Over the last five years, Audi has increased its annual sales in Europe by almost one quarter, while the overall market has only recovered to its 2010 level so far. In 2015, Spain (+16.5% to 44,587 cars) and Italy (+10.3% to 54,054 cars) led the positive trend for Audi. France gained 5.2 percent with sales of 60,216 units. Audi sold more automobiles than ever before in Germany (+5.7% to 270,063 cars) and the UK (+5.0% to 166,817 cars). Conditions remained difficult in Russia: down 24.6 percent to 25,650 Audi customers in 2015.
In the United States, the company surpassed the 200,000 mark for the first time in its history: rising 11.1 percent to 202,202 units. Audi has thus doubled its U.S. sales within five years. In December, despite the voluntary temporary halt to sales of diesel models, deliveries increased by 6.0 percent to 20,399 automobiles. With sales rising 22.6 percent to 52,006 SUV models for the full year, the Q5 set a particularly strong pace and led the Q family boom. 32,119 customers made the Audi A3 Sedan (+52.4%) the most popular compact sedan in the U.S. premium market. In addition to the United States, Audi’s strong performance overall in the Americas was supported in particular by Canada (+9.1% to 26,754 cars), Mexico (+9.3% to 14,147 cars) and Brazil, which showed continued strong growth of 38.7 percent to 17,130 units.
In China, Audi once again achieved very high sales levels in 2015, ending the year with 570,889 customers, slightly below the comparative figure for 2014 (-1.4%). 60,197 units in December represent the second-best month in the company’s history in this market, 3.8 percent below the record level set in the same month last year. In late 2014, the launch of the A3 Sedan as another locally produced model had created particularly high customer traffic at dealerships. Over the course of the next months, the company will introduce various new models throughout its Chinese product portfolio: by the summer of 2016, successors will be launched for models that represent around 60 percent of total Audi sales in China.
