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Sales slump at Audi: Electric vehicles are faltering, the domestic market too

(dpa) The times are difficult for German car manufacturers – but VW subsidiary Audi is particularly suffering from weak demand, including for the e-models.

Audi is struggling in its home market, as well as in China and North America - new BEV models like the hopeful A6 Sportback e-tron are expected to help. | Photo: Audi
Audi is struggling in its home market, as well as in China and North America - new BEV models like the hopeful A6 Sportback e-tron are expected to help. | Photo: Audi
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Audi had to endure a slump in sales last year. The car manufacturer from Ingolstadt delivered around 200,000 fewer cars of its core brand, as it announced. The decline in demand affects all major markets. It also went down in the field of electric mobility. Audi attributes the decline to economic conditions, intense competition, and limited parts availability.

Specifically, Audi reports 1.67 million deliveries worldwide. This was almost 12 percent less than in 2023. In its home market of Germany, the decline was particularly pronounced at 21 percent, but North America, with a drop of 13 percent, and the most important market, China, also weakened. In the latter, deliveries fell by 11 percent to 649,000 cars. The best performance was in Europe outside of Germany, where deliveries only fell by 6 percent to 466,000 cars. Audi also faced headwinds in electric mobility: 164,000 fully electric cars represent a decrease of 8 percent compared to the previous year. 

Sales board member Marco Schubert, however, indirectly gives hope for an improvement in the new year. "2024 was already classified as a transition year from the beginning," he says. While they have "strong models in the pipeline," these will only gradually bring volume. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner emphasized that they are confident in achieving their own long-term goals. However, Audi currently does not specify concrete sales targets.

Competitor Mercedes already reported figures last week. The Stuttgart-based company also had to accept declines in sales, with a 3 percent drop to 1.98 million cars at Mercedes Benz Cars - including Smart - but these were milder. A similar situation is seen with Audi's corporate sister Porsche, with a decrease of three percent to 310,700 vehicles.

Translated automatically from German.
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