HERNDON, VA – Audi AG has achieved its stated objective of selling one million cars in 2008 for the first time in its history. With about 1,003,400 cars sold worldwide, Audi increased its unit sales volume by 4.1 percent over the prior year (2007: 964,151). With the newly introduced Audi Q5 and the successful young A4 family, sales in December increased by 17.4 percent over the prior year’s December, to around 82,800 units (2007: 70,523).

In the past year, the Ingolstadt-based firm has launched 12 new or upgraded models. This gives Audi the advantage of having the youngest model range in the premium segment. The most important introductions were the Audi A4 sedan, which was rolled out in Europe in November 2007, the Audi A4 Avant which followed in April, product upgrades of the A3 and A6, and the brand-new Audi Q5.

Audi achieved growth especially in the European markets and in the Asia-Pacific region. In Western Europe, unit sales of around 53,900 in December surpassed the prior year’s December by 22.7 percent (2007: 43,969). In the entire year of 2008, Audi sold some 667,000 cars in this region, 2.5 percent more than in the prior year (2007: 650,407). These excellent sales volumes also resulted in record market shares in Western Europe and Germany.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Audi delivered new cars to around 14,000 customers in December, an increase of 15.6 percent in unit sales (2007: 12,097). During the entire year, 155,100 customers bought an Audi in this region – 15.6 percent more than in 2007.

In the USA, the third-largest export market for the premium brand from Ingolstadt, sales of 87,760 cars in 2008 amounted to a 6.1 percent drop from the prior year (2007: 93,506). In December Audi sold 7,712 units here, 9.3 percent fewer than in the prior year (2007: 8,504).