(November 13, 2009) INGOLSTADT, Germany — Last January Audi predicted worldwide sales of 900,000 vehicles in 2009. But the picture is brighter at the German automaker going into the last six weeks of the calendar year.

“Our sales figures worldwide have developed much better than expected,” remarked Peter Schwarzenbauer, a member of the Board of Management for Marketing and Sales at Audi AG. “The Audi Q5 is emerging as one of our most successful models. And in particular the A5 and A6 model lines are selling well. We are therefore upgrading our worldwide sales target to 925,000 cars.”

Audi sold around 82,750 cars in October, 0.4 percent more than in the prior-year month (82,436). From January through October, Audi sold some 787,900 cars worldwide compared to 844,724 in 2008. The difference compared with the record-breaking year 2008 was consequently reduced 6.7 percent, but still significantly better than forecast at the start of the year. In China, Audi had already matched the total for the whole of 2008 by the last week of October.

In January, Audi had been the only premium carmaker to issue a specific sales target for 2009; the company’s aim at that point was to sell around 900,000 vehicles, some 10 percent down on 2008. Audi’s positive sales trend also owes to an outstanding performance in its biggest international market, China.