Audi sales juggernaut picking up speed

Audi was a big winner last year, among the prestige brands selling cars in Australia. Sales growth was 20.1 per cent by the end of 2014.

Only the (three-pointed) star performer in the prestige sector, Mercedes-Benz, out-gunned Audi for the year, adding 4022 new-car sales transactions to bring its 2014 total up to 27,086.

One other prestige brand performed better in percentage terms – Land Rover, with 21.03 per cent. But Land Rover only gained 1756 new sales in 2014 to achieve that percentage difference, taking the British SUV brand up to 10,106 sales for the year.

For Audi to achieve its percentage growth, it had to sell 3218 extra cars, which is close to 1500 more than the added sales Land Rover managed during the year.

Audi is practically guaranteed of breaking the 20,000-unit sales barrier in 2015, based on historical precedent, based on coming so close in 2014, based on new product being released this year, and based on filling the gaps in its dealer network.

Audi has broken its own local sales record every year since 2004. Its growth in the Australian market for 2012 was only 0.2 per cent, but it was a new sales record, nonetheless. Other than that single year, Audi has posted double-digit growth every year since 2005. If it 'only' adds 10 per cent to the 2014 sales number, it will tick over 21,000 units for 2015.

To achieve this new record in 2015, Audi will roll out an extensive catalogue of new product. According to Audi Product Manager John Roberts, updated Q3 and A1 will arrive around the middle of the year. The TT Roadster (including the TT S Roadster) will arrive here in Q3, along with the TTS Coupe. RS 3 is expected here towards the end of the year and the Q7 SUV is also due around then, during the fourth quarter. The e-tron version of the Q7 is anticipated to reach us sometime in 2016.

The new R8 is due mid-2016 (but the e-tron is likely to be unavailable, given the prospect it will be engineered for left-hook markets only). Confirmed for Australia, but without an official launch date yet, is the diminutive Q1 SUV, which will be built in Ingolstadt. Yet to be confirmed for production are TT RS, Q8, TT-Q or the Prologue Avant.

What is confirmed for Australia, however, gives Audi real strength in high-profit market niches. And Audi can keep prospective buyers baited with the 'promise' of cars not yet confirmed, but distinctly possible – like the TT RS.

Despite Audi's consistently outstanding performance in the market, there are still gaps in its dealer network coverage. Melbourne has been a problem in the past, although Audi Australia MD Andrew Doyle disputes that the brand remains behind the eight ball in the southern capital. Sales in Victoria are growing faster than the national average, Doyle told motoring.com.au during the launch of the revised A6 and A7 model ranges earlier this week.

To promote the brand down south, Audi is sponsoring "three round-robin games" for the ICC at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in July. Doyle says that the three games are already "70 per cent sold out." And to exploit the improving Audi brand awareness in Victoria, the prestige importer has just opened its new facility in the eastern suburb of Doncaster.

"In Doncaster Road we're opening a 5400m² brand new Audi terminal," Doyle said. "This beautiful showroom holds 20 new cars and 35 Audi Approved Plus pre-owned vehicles. That of course joins hot on the heels of just last November, when we opened Audi Centre Melbourne – a $25 million investment in Melbourne city."

Previously, Doyle told motoring.com.au, the Audi retailer in prosperous Doncaster was located on the low (west) side of the Tram Road intersection, in a much smaller facility hemmed in by volume-selling dealers. In a sign of the times, the new Audi facility in Doncaster now occupies the high-profile, high-visibility site where Doncaster Holden once stood.

Audi is also gaining ground in Queensland. The company has just opened a new dealership in Indooroopilly and plans to open another in Springwood later this year.

"As a direct result of the sustainable growth we've had, just last week... we opened up in south-west Brisbane – in Indooroopilly – a $3 million facility... a 1000m², 60-car dealership."

Doyle says the brand's growth in Queensland grew at more than 40 per cent last year, although he admitted that was from a low base.

The A3 is far and away Audi's largest-selling model in Australia, but Audi is also making major inroads into the large-car segment above $70,000, the prestige importer claims. Combined sales of the A6 and A7 models in its range have lifted Audi by nearly 150 extra units last year. That represents 25 per cent growth – for a car commonly known to be due for replacement by the facelifted model launched here this week. Doyle attributes the A6's (and A7's) impressive sales performance during its run-out period to its standing as "a good value package" representing a "great technology proposition."

Sales of the new A6/A7 range (including A7/S7 V8 performance models) are set to continue growing this year, but as much as Audi sees the 5 Series BMW as a rival to A6/S6 (and 6 Series Gran Coupe a competitor for the A7/S7), it has to knock off even Jaguar's aging XF before it can reel in the BMWs – let alone the all-conquering E-Class and CLS from Mercedes-Benz.

But with Doyle predicting "unrestricted" supply in 2015, who knows where the A6 and A7 might finish the year?

2014 large prestige passenger car sales (versus 2013)