Audi sales hit record in 2016, despite losing ground to rivals

Updated - January 12, 2018 at 04:58 PM.

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German luxury-car brand Audi said its deliveries rose to a new record last year despite the diesel emissions scandal, although that would likely not be enough to save it from dropping into third place behind luxury rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW in global sales rankings.

The key contributor to Volkswagen group profit increased the sales of luxury cars and sport-utility vehicles to1.87 million units from 1.80 million in 2015, a spokesman said on Saturday.

Ingolstadt-based Audi raised deliveries by 4 per cent in theUnited States where VW’s emissions test-cheating scandal broke’in 2015 and reported 6.4 per cent more sales in Britain, its No.2 European market, the spokesman said, confirming figures first reported by German daily newspaper

Die Welt in its Saturday edition.

Audi is due to publish official figures for December on Monday, same as parent VW. They are expected to show it has dropped into third place from second in terms of global luxury car brands.

The luxury-car maker may start selling diesel vehicles again in the US after deliveries were banned in the wake of the emissions manipulations, though a decision hasn’t been taken yet, Die Welt quoted sales chief Dietmar Voggenreiter as saying in an interview.

By contrast, VW’s namesake brand plans to drop the technology in the US as it reboots its strategy in the Americas post-diesel gate, brand chief Herbert Diess has said.

Published on January 7, 2017 06:08