Audi’s sales chief believes the new car sales market slump has bottomed out and 2010 sales should show “light growth” compared with 2009.
The German manufacturer saw a 1.2 per cent rise in its global year-on-year sales in June, selling 91,200 units, although sales for the first six months of 2009 were down 9.7 per cent to 466,000 units.
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Peter Schwarzenbauer believes we may have seen the low point in sales and the market had been stabilising since April. But he doesn't think Audi will reach one million sales this year, saying that this could take two or three years to happen again.
Last year, Audi had its 13th consecutive year of growth and it sold more than one million vehicles. This year’s figure should be around 900,000, according to Schwarzenbauer.
Audi is also said to be planning to expand its line-up to 40 models by 2015. It aims to sell 1.5 million vehicles a year by the following year.
Audi rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz both had their slowest sales declines in eight months in June, suggesting that Schwarzenbauer’s observations may be accurate.
BMW's global sales fell 13 per cent year on year in June, to 127,546 units, while sales of Mercedes-Benz models were down five per cent to 100,300 vehicles.
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