(May 9, 2015) INGOLSTADT, Germany — After the best first quarter in the company’s history, Audi continued its growth selling more cars in April than the year before. Audi reported 152,850 deliveries exceeding prior-year sales by 2.5 percent.

Demand again increased in all regions of the world compared with the same month in 2014. Audi AG’s business developed positively especially on the American continent: deliveries to customers climbed by 12.7 percent. From January to April, global unit sales of the company grew by 5.2 percent to around 591,050.

“Audi remains on course and posted a solid sales performance in April. Despite the upcoming generation changes in key model families and sales markets we have surpassed the record figures of the previous year,” says Luca de Meo, board member for Sales and Marketing. “In the coming months we intend to continue growing worldwide.”

In the U.S., Audi sales in the past month grew by 7.5 percent to 16,827 units. In particular, the brand’s SUVs were in high demand among U.S. customers: altogether, sales of the Q models increased by 35.6 percent to 6,447 units.

Across all models, deliveries by Audi of America have increased since the beginning of the year by 11.9 percent to 56,925 units, marking significantly faster growth than the U.S. market as a whole. Double‑digit growth for the month of April was reported in the region by Canada (up 36.6% to 3,219 cars) and Brazil (up 67.5% to 1,856 cars).

In Europe, Audi concluded the past month slightly above the figures for April 2014 and delivered around 71,750 cars to customers, 0.9 percent more than a year ago. Key Western European markets such as Italy (up 22.4% to 5,225 cars), Spain (up 15.8% to 4,100 cars) and Sweden (up 21.1% to 1,879 cars) led the monthly balance sheet as growth drivers.

The Western European region reported a sales increase of 3.1 percent to around 67,300 cars for April. Cumulatively, Audi unit sales in this region amounted to around 262,550 cars, an increase of 4.6 percent. The brand’s full‑size category models in particular are experiencing significantly increasing demand in the Western European markets. Sales of the updated Audi A6 already available there have risen by 15.8 percent since January to around 32,250 cars delivered.

Also the new Audi Q7 is drawing strong customer interest for the brand’s top segment: advanced orders for the full‑size SUV are already on a high level, ahead of its market introduction. The model will premiere at dealer showrooms in first markets from mid‑year on and will start to be handed over to customers at that time.

In Russia, the negative market trend continued also for Audi in April: since the beginning of 2015, local sales have declined by one‑third (down 31% to 8,248 cars).