Audi has gained its largest ever slice of the European market in the year to September and is heading for its sixth record year of growth in succession.

"Audi has recorded the best nine-month figures for vehicle sales, sales revenues and profit in its history and is increasingly defying the general trend," said Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen, chairman of Audi's board of management, today in Munich.

With an expected 7.2%, the company has achieved its highest market share in Germany in the period January to September (previous year: 6.7 percent). With an estimated 2.4 percent, Audi has also recorded its highest share of the western European market, excluding Germany, in company history (previous year: 2.2%).

According to Dr Paefgen, Audi is now heading for its sixth record year in succession. A temporary slowdown in the rate of growth, due among other things to recent events in the USA, is however possible.

But Dr Paefgen said: "We are still expecting to sell more than 700,000 vehicles to Audi customers worldwide in the whole of 2001, to boost sales revenues by more than 10% compared with the previous year and to post a further increase in earnings."

Worldwide vehicle sales by the Audi Group (including Autogerma) were up to a total of more than 756,600 cars by the end of September (January to September 2000: 696,228). This is an increase of 8.7% on the same period last year. A total of 545,300 (492,540) Audi models were sold. This is equivalent to an increase of 10.7%. Car sales by the subsidiary Lamborghini rose by 5.8% to 220 units. A total of around 552,300 (477,153) cars (up 15.7%) and around 927,900 (892,576) engines (up 4%) were produced in the first nine months.