Audi sales up 19% in first half of 2010

VW’s premium brand, Audi, expects its sales in 2010 to be significantly above 1 million units, the firm’s boss said. “We are positively surprised by how we’ve started in 2010,” Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said this week.

“We will also have a good second half of the year,” he said, adding that he would give a more precise sales forecast with Audi’s first-half report on Friday 30th July.

Audi’s sales slipped 5.4 percent to 949,700 in 2009 but have sold 554,950 vehicles in the first half of this year which is up 19.1% compared with the first 6 months of last year. As a result the German car manufacturer is on course to beat its previous full-year sales record of 1,003,469 units set in 2008.