Tough competition: Audi sales are plummeting

Deliveries at Audi fell sharply in the third quarter. This is due to a weak market in China and model changes. But Trump also plays a role.

Audi delivered almost a fifth fewer cars to its customers in the third quarter. In total there were 314,905 vehicles from the core brand, as the Ingolstadt-based company announced. This means a decrease of 19.7 percent compared to the same period last year. This accelerates the downward trend. In the second quarter the decline was around 8 percent.

Calculated over the first nine months of the year, Audi currently has 1.04 million deliveries. That is 11.4 percent less than a year ago. At least in Germany and Europe, Audi is slightly in the black for the first nine months.

The VW subsidiary, like all German manufacturers, is suffering from tough competition and the weak market in China. In addition, US President Donald Trump's tariffs are hitting the car manufacturer particularly hard because - unlike BMW, for example - it does not have its own production in the USA. In the first nine months of the year, Audi sold almost a quarter fewer cars in China and around a sixth fewer cars in the USA. According to Audi, the decline is currently being exacerbated by model changes in the two volume models A1 and Q2.

How clear the downward trend that has been going on at Audi for several years can also be seen when you compare with older figures. In the third quarter of 2023, Audi delivered almost 480,000 cars from its core brand. Around half more than now.