Dubai: Audi said it sold 3,223 cars from January to June this year in the Middle East, as its first-half regional sales grew 31.4 per cent compared with the same period last year.
The UAE accounted for more than one-third of the half-yearly sales, Audi Middle East said. Other key markets were Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Audi sold 2,452 units in the first six months of 2006.
The Audi Q7, first introduced in mid-2006, was the bestselling car with 1,212 units sold this year.
The rest of the sales were distributed evenly across the saloon segments.
The sports car segment experienced growth after the introduction of the new generation Audi TT in April. Audi said the orders for the Audi R8 mid-engine sports car, which is due to arrive in September, have already exceeded the allocation by at least double.
It said while production capacity at the Neckarsulm factory has been increased to maximum, the car that is largely assembled by hand.
"Audi Middle East has put a lot of effort into the growth of the Audi brand in the past two years, in both sales and service. We are happy to see that we can parallel the worldwide success of our mother company Audi AG within the region," said Ernst Hasbach, managing director of Audi Middle East.
