Audi races to new sales record

Ingolstadt-based auto maker Audi announced Tuesday it had booked a new sales record in 2014 after selling 1.74 million vehicles worldwide. The company's revenue last year came in at almost 54 billion euros ($58.3 billion), an 8 percent increase over the previous year.

Audi's operating profit amounted to 5.2 billion euros, a 2 percent rise achieved despite heavy investments in new factories and models.

Bottom-line earnings totaled 4.4 billion euros in 2014, 10 percent more than a year ago, Audi executives reported.

No sure-fire success

CEO Rupert Stadler told journalists that like many other companies, Audi had to grapple with structural problems in a number of emerging markets, including Brazil and India. An added irritation had been geopolitical tensions in some of its markets.

Stadler said the carmaker was aiming for yet another sales record in the current year, reiterating his goal to shift more than 2 million cars annually by 2020.

Audi has been a subsidiary of Europe's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen, since 2007 and has become VW's most important single brand in terms of revenues.

In 2013, Audi booked revenues of 50 billion euros, more than a quarter of VW's total. In the same year, it contributed almost 43 percent of Volkswagen's operating profit.

hg/cjc (Reuters, dpa)