AUDI Australia says it is expecting another solid year of sales Down Under on the back of a slew of new product as it keeps its eyes on the global top spot.

Last year Audi chalked up another record year in Australia with 24,258 registrations, representing a 5.1 per cent sales increase over its 23,088-unit result from 2015.

Speaking with GoAuto at the Q2 media launch in Victoria last week, Audi Australia general manager of corporate communications Anna Burgdorf said the company’s growth in this market exceeded that of its parent company globally.

“Importantly for us, it was sustainable growth,” she said. “Of course, we would always love to grow more. It was a good result in a difficult market. We are pleased our sales came sustainably. We grew slightly more than the company globally, which I think was just under four per cent.”

Ms Burgdorf added that Audi Australia was not solely focused on sales numbers each year and instead concentrated on success in a variety of areas.

“When we measure our success, we measure our volume sales, dealer profitability, customer satisfaction, staff satisfaction – a number of factors, not just volume sales. There is a certain way to chase volume sales, we want sustainable growth and a healthy business.”

Audi maintained its number three-status in the premium market in Australia last year, trailing Mercedes-Benz which recorded 41,226 sales and BMW on 28,028, increases of 13.3 and 12.0 per cent respectively. Take out commercial vehicles and Mercedes came in at 36,634 (up 15.4 per cent).

Less than 4000 sales separated Audi from BMW in 2016, but the four-ringed brand has had a strong start to 2017, selling 2025 passenger cars and SUVs in January against BMW’s 2104.

Audi’s slow and steady march towards the top of the premium sales charts has been well documented.

Just 10 years ago in 2006, Audi sold 5770 vehicles here, compared with BMW’s 16,034 and Benz’s 18,104. By 2010, Audi’s annual volume had more than doubled to 12,900 units, against 17,993 BMWs and 22,329 for Mercedes.

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Ms Burgdorf highlighted the company’s desire to move up the sales rankings but declined to put a timeframe on achieving its goal.

“It has to be sustainable but we do want to be number one, we have said that globally. In order to be number one globally it helps to be number one in every market. So yes, of course we don’t want to stay in the number-three position forever,” she said.

“I think it is too early for us to say (when), suffice to say we do want to get to number one. We just haven’t got a timeframe on it at the moment.”

Audi AG has previously stated its ambition of overtaking BMW as the top-selling premium brand globally by 2020 on the back of an ambitious product rollout.

While many of the new models are yet to be announced, Audi has confirmed it will launch more SUVs (and more electrified vehicles) in a bid to cash in on the growing trend towards high-riders.

In the short term, however, Ms Burgdorf said she envisages strong volume coming from a number of new models launching in Australia this year.

“Q2 will be great, because it is a completely new car so we do see a lot of new customers coming into the brand,” she said.

“The Q5 being effectively one of our bigger-selling models, it will certainly be an important car for us midway through the year. We have got a lot of owners who are probably ready to change their vehicles. What we have seen so far, the new Q5 will be a really appealing package to our customers.

“A5 will be great as well. Q7 sales continue to pick up, that’s nice and steady. As always, SUVs will continue to grow just that bit faster. But A3 again continues to sell really well. Our RS model sales are strong. There’s a lot to look forward to this year.”

While sales of the ageing current-generation Q5 dipped last year, it was the top-selling premium mid-size SUV in this market in 2015, while the Q3 was just usurped as the leader of the premium small SUV segment last year by the BMW X1.

Despite the growth in its SUV sales, Audi sold more passenger vehicles than BMW in Australia last year, 14,117 units to 13,611. It couldn’t beat the Bavarian brand for SUV sales, however, with BMW ahead by more than 4000 units.

By Tim Nicholson