OREANDA-NEWS. AUDI AG has started the second quarter with further growth. In April, worldwide deliveries climbed by 7.5 percent year on year to around 164,350 automobiles. The four ring’s two largest markets China (+9.4%) and Germany (+12.4%) reported substantial growth rates. Globally, cumulative sales since January were up 4.9 percent on the corresponding period of 2015 at around 620,100 units. This was the first time ever in the Company’s history that over 600,000 customers had chosen an Audi in the opening four-month period.

“The result for April demonstrates that we have been successfully launching our model initiative in an increasing number of markets,” says Dietmar Voggenreiter, Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG. “We continued to increase sales in all of our core regions which reflects the sound balance of our business. In China, the trend is positive; in the United States and Europe, Audi has been growing faster than the market since the start of the year.”

Last month, the two latest models in particular achieved strong sales growth. The new Q7 stepped up the pace by 67.5 percent to around 8,400 units worldwide and spearheaded the successful progress of the SUV fleet from Audi. Overall demand for sporty all-terrain vehicles with the four rings went up 17.2 percent in April to around 52,150 units. The new A4 also continued its successful start: sales of the entire A4 family increased by 34.7 percent over the month to reach around 32,100 automobiles, even before the new model’s introduction on the Chinese market.

In China, the new A4 L will arrive at dealers in the second half of the year. The long-wheelbase version developed specifically for Chinese customers made its world premiere in Beijing at the end of April and is aimed to build on the success of the predecessor model. Audi has already delivered almost 700,000 cars of this model to customers in China. The brand’s current model range notched up sales of 49,576 units in China in April, surpassing the same month of the previous year by 9.4 percent. There were significant gains for the Q3 (+25.6% to 7,298 cars), the latest generation of which went on sale in China last month. The A3 (+30.6% to 7,398 cars) equally remains very popular with Chinese customers. The month ended successfully for the entire Asia-Pacific region with an increase of 9.8 percent across all models resulting in around 57,300 deliveries to customers.

In Europe, alongside Germany (+12.4% to 28,844 cars) key Southern European markets started the second quarter with double-digit growth. Sales of 6,008 units in Italy represent a rise of 15 percent compared with April 2015. Spain reported deliveries of 4,827 automobiles to customers, an increase of 17.6 percent. Strengthened by a positive development in Central and Eastern Europe, the brand with the four rings maintained its course of growth throughout all of Europe in April: deliveries in the region were up 9 percent at around 78,250 units.

In the United States, the brand’s popular SUV models provided a particular boost to the business of Audi of America. Fueled by the new Q7, SUV sales in the U.S. market climbed by 25.6 percent in April to 8,089 units. Across all models, Audi achieved a 5.8 percent increase in sales in the United States to 17,801 automobiles. Amid the recent dip in momentum in the U.S. premium market, the Company thus continued growth at the pace of the preceding months. In North America overall, Audi deliveries in April reached some 22,400 units, 6.6 percent more than one year earlier. There was especially swift progress for Audi in Mexico (+29.9% to 1,243 cars) of late, where the recent market introduction of the new A4 brought additional customers to dealers.