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Audi posts €363 million operating profit in the first quarter

Despite the economic crisis, the Audi Group posted a clearly positive operating profit in the first quarter of 2009. From January through March of the current year, the Audi brand grew its market share in Western Europe to 4.6 percent (2008: 4.1 percent), putting it at the top of the premium segment.

Despite the difficult overall economic environment with falling sales worldwide, the Audi Group made a successful start to the year in several markets and maintained its profitability in the first three months with a positive operating profit.

The Group generated revenue of €6.7 billion from January through March (2008: €8.3 billion), 19.2 percent less than in the previous year. Operating profit in this period totaled €363 million (2008: €514 million), a downturn of 29.4 percent.

"The first quarter developed much as we expected and provides us with a solid basis for reaching our target for 2009, namely of posting a significantly positive result," explained Axel Strotbek, Member of the Board of Management for Finance and Organization at AUDI AG.

Audi is continuing its model initiative in the current year with models such as the A5 Cabriolet, the A4 allroad quattro and the A5 Sportback. The market share figures recently published by the European carmakers' association ACEA for the months January through March confirm just how successful the brand with the four rings is.

According to these figures, Audi has taken the top spot in the premium segment in Western Europe with a market share of 4.6 percent (2008: 4.1 percent), clearly ahead of its competitors.

149,650 new Audi cars were registered in the Western European region in the first quarter, 4.6 percent fewer than in the prior-year period. Audi thus developed significantly better than its core competitors and the overall market, the latter slumping by 16.3 percent in the months January through March.

"This success shows that we have the right products on the market and ones that are popular with customers. We are therefore continuing our model initiative at unabated speed in 2009 and investing around €2 billion in new, innovative products and efficient engines," added Strotbek.

The latest example is the A4 2.0 TDIe with 136 hp which will be in dealers' showrooms at the start of June: With an average fuel consumption of 4.6 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers (51.13 US mpg) and CO2 emissions of 119 grams per kilometer, this Audi is currently the most efficient midsize model on the market.

[Via: Infibeam]

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