Record figures for vehicle sales, revenue and profit

• 1.4 million vehicles by 2015
• 10% return on investment and 6% increase in sales expected for 2006
• Best April and best four months in company history
• Growth in China and USA
• The record year 2005: employees involved in company’s success

Audi is continuing to build in 2006 on the success achieved in the record year of 2005 in terms of vehicle sales. “International competition in the car industry is tough and we car manufacturers have to live according to the principle of ‘push them out before you get pushed out yourself.’ The fact that Audi is so well positioned is the result of a product and brand strategy geared to the long term,” explained AUDI AG Chairman, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, at the company’s 117th Annual General Meeting in Ingolstadt. “We are supplementing our A3, A4, A6 and A8 model lines with fascinating new models,” stated Winterkorn. “We are aiming to break through the magic sales barrier of one million vehicles as early as the end of 2008. And that will just be an intermediate goal: by the year 2015 we plan to be selling at least 1.4 million vehicles a year,” said Winterkorn to the company’s shareholders.

Qualitative growth

“Growth and high volume are not everything: we will increase productivity per vehicle in order to increase our profits,” commented Winterkorn, confirming the direction in which AUDI AG is headed. “We expect the key financial performance indicators including profit to be just as good this year as last year. We are optimistic that we will achieve a return on investment of at least 10 percent this year,” added Winterkorn.

Audi’s goal is to achieve a rate of return of six percent by 2008. “The year has got off to a very good start for Audi. We will continue to keep up this pace and expect to achieve new record figures again in 2006. We are aiming to sell around six percent or up to 50,000 more cars this year than in 2005,” stated Winterkorn to the shareholders. In the first four months of this year the company´s revenue increased by 17.3 percent to Euro 10,052 million compared to last year´s revenue.

Record deliveries in the first four months
Audi A6 worldwide market leader in its class

With its best April and best four months ever, the Audi brand achieved a new company record for vehicle sales. In the first four months of this year, Audi delivered 304,414 vehicles to customers worldwide, an increase of 12.1 percent on last year (2005: 271,615). Audi handed over 77,619 vehicles in April, 4.5 percent more than in the same month last year. The company achieved its highest rates of growth for the first four months in the C-segment. With a total of 79,414 units delivered, the Audi A6 recorded an increase of 42 percent. This makes the Audi A6 the worldwide market leader in the premium C segment. Audi achieved a sales increase of 19.1 percent for the A8.

“What’s even more gratifying to note is that the rise in revenue is disproportionately high compared with vehicle sales,” remarked Winterkorn.

Upward trend in China and USA

“In its course of expansion, the Audi Group is becoming increasingly less dependent on German domestic demand. This is because we are developing more and more into a globally active company,” said Winterkorn at the Annual General Meeting. “The proportion of our sales in the USA and Asia alone has increased from 13 to over 22 percent in the last ten years.”

In the first four months of this year, Audi recorded a growth rate of 5.2 percent in the USA and increased vehicle sales to 25,296 units. In order to ensure that lasting growth is achieved, Audi is investing in particular in the dealer network and brand development.

Audi further extended its long-standing lead in the premium segment in China, doubling sales to 26,636 vehicles and recording its highest growth rate yet for the first four months. The company’s standing in terms of reliability and customer satisfaction also confirms its strong position: Audi came out on top once again in the J.D. Power rankings for China. Sales in Asia, excluding China, went up in the same period by 29.8 percent to 8,169 units. With an increase of 195% (2,003 vehicles), South Korea is reaping the benefits of the new sales structure.

“It is important to exhaust the potential of existing markets. But it is equally important to open up new markets,” said Winterkorn. A good example of this is Eastern Europe including Russia: Audi sold around 2,497 models in Russia in the first four months of this year. In the same period, Audi increased vehicle sales in Eastern Europe by 31 percent to 9,088 units.

In the first four months of this year, Audi recorded a growth rate of 6.5 percent in Europe by selling almost 227,466 cars. The strongest growth markets here include Belgium (12,690, up 21.3 percent), Sweden (4,540, up 13.5 percent), France (16,437, up 13.2 percent) and the Netherlands (6,371, up 10 percent).

In the first four months of this year, Audi increased its sales in its home market of Germany by 5.1 percent to 81,964 vehicles. Audi sold 136,400 models in Western Europe excluding Germany, 6 percent more than in the same period last year.

Record figures for production, vehicle sales, revenue and profit in 2005

Rupert Stadler, Member of the Board of AUDI AG for Finance and Organisation, explained the key company figures for the 2005 financial year. With more than 829,000 units sold worldwide, the Audi Group increased vehicle sales by 6.4 percent compared with the previous year and achieved a new sales record – its tenth in succession. Record figures were attained in 39 markets. In spite of exchange rates remaining adverse, the Audi Group was able to boost its revenue to EUR 26.6 billion – a new record level. This is equivalent to an increase of 8.5 percent on the previous year, a disproportionately high rise compared with sales. The company upped its profit before tax to EUR 1.3 billion, 14.6 percent more than the previous year. Profit after tax amounted to EUR 824 million.

“We have thus yet again achieved our objective of qualitative growth,” stated Stadler at the Annual General Meeting. He attributed this in particular to the improved model and equipment mix. “At the same time, the ongoing process and cost improvement measures helped to bring about a steady improvement in the quality of our earnings.” On the one hand, the quantitative growth of Audi in the past financial year is reflected by the upward trend of sales figures; on the other, the disproportionate development in the key financial performance indicators shows that Audi has also improved above all in qualitative terms.

In our company agreement “Audi’s Future”, the decision was made to introduce an additional performance-related bonus for employees when the operating result reaches a certain level. If we look at the past financial year, we see that the requirement for this extended profit share for employees has been fulfilled. A total of EUR 21.7 million will be paid out to the workforce in May 2006. “This means that we will be giving our employees a greater share in our company’s profits than was previously the case,” said Winterkorn. Audi provides around 45,000 secure jobs in Germany alone.

Audi S8