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Stabroek News

AUDI EXHALES ... with high Q7 sales
published: Sunday | April 9, 2006

VOLKSWAGEN'S PREMIUM Audi brand saw deliveries rise just over 9.6 percent in March, the first month in which its new Q7 SUV was on the market.

The company said in the last week of March that more than 93,600 Audis were sold to customers in the month compared with 85,389 a year earlier.

Although Audi had said on March 10, the day of the Q7 launch, that more than 15,000 units were ordered, only 3,300 Q7s were driven out of showrooms since then.

For the full first quarter, Audi brand deliveries rose 16 per cent to over 226,700 vehicles.

"This was the best March and the best first quarter in the company's history," Audi said in a statement.

Audi has announced it is increasing production of its first sports utility vehicle, the Q7, after only a few weeks on sale.

The Q7 is seen as Audi's answer to the BMW X5, and went on sale in Europe earlier in March. The volume of enquiries has lead to an increase in daily production of 50 per cent, from 200 to 300 cars per day. Audi claims to have taken 16,000 orders for the car already, and expects to sell up to 70,000 in

this calendar year.

The Q7 comes in two guises - a chunky 3.0-litre V6 turboengine developing 233 bhp, and a gargantuan 4.2 litre eight-cylinder petrol engine that chugs out 350 bhp.

Despite recent image problems for SUVs, as shown in the tax penalties introduced in several countries for bigger-engined cars, it seems a large section of the car-buying public still can't get enough of them. The huge response from buyers augurs for Audi as it prepares to launch the car in the USA and China in June, and in other world-wide markets in the second half of 2006.

The Audi Q7 is on its way to becoming the second highest volume vehicle in the German automaker's US. line-up, just behind the A4, based on US. preorders.

Audi spokesman Alan Hall said there are "already over 1,000 preorders in the system in the US., which is right where we want to be."

Audi has targeted 25,000 to 30,000 US. sales for the Q7 per year. Reuters said on Friday that the company expects to sell up to 70,000 units of the Q7 this year, after getting more than 16,000 orders by early March. Brisk demand has prompted Audi to increase production of the model to 300 units per day from 200.

Sources: Edmunds.com and AutoExpress.co.uk

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