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DETROIT - Volkswagen's premium unit Audi expects to post new records for revenue and earnings for 2006 after racking up its 11th straight best ever annual sales result, the company said yesterday.
"Along with the sales figures, 2006 will certainly be an absolute record also in terms of other results," new Audi chief Rupert Stadler said at the North American International Auto Show without going further into detail.
In 2005, the Ingolstadt-based carmaker reported a 15 per cent gain in pretax profit to €1.31 billion ($2.48 billion) after revenue rose 8.5 per cent to €26.59 billion.
He pointed to the increase in the average value of vehicles sold due to more expensive options and feature packages, more powerful motors and the launch of the new full-size Q7 sport utility vehicle.
New models helped lift deliveries to customers last year by 9.2 per cent to 905,100 vehicles, marking a pace that outperformed larger rival brands Mercedes-Benz with 6.5 per cent and BMW with 5.2 per cent.
"We're on the best path to becoming the most successful premium carmaker in the world by 2015," Stadler said.
In order to catch up with Mercedes and BMW, Audi first targets sales of 1 million vehicles by 2008, before increasing deliveries to 1.4 million units by 2015.
- REUTERS
