ATL Automotive, the dealers for Audi in Jamaica, has seen a 50 per cent increase in sales for the month of September, when compared to the same month in 2012, driven in the main by strong sales of the A4.

Year-to-date sales have increased 12 per cent in Jamaica for the brand with the four rings.

ATL Automotive’s Director of Sales Hugh Okoye, speaking with Caribbean Business Report yesterday, said: “Audi’s growth has been the result of Jamaica’s recognition of the brand as the new “status quo”.

“Our vehicles are now the new “aspirational” automobile of the buying public. As the love affair continues to grow, so does our market share.

“Audi plans on displacing BMW by 2018 as the world’s number one luxury brand and if the growth here in Jamaica can be used as a measure, it’s fair to say that we are on our way.”

Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, set a new global sales record for the month of September, delivering 150,300 units, representing a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent.

Sales of the A3 Sportsback, the Q3 and Q5 have particularly been strong, noted Audi Sales Chief Luca de Meo.

Audi has delivered around 1,180,750 units worldwide since January spelling a 7.6 per cent increase on the same period last year.

Since 2013, Audi has delivered 150,400 units of the entire A3 range. The A3 sedan was launched in Europe two weeks ago.

Audi is enjoying a sales boost in the United States due in part to the popularity of the compact SUV, particularly the Q5. In that market, demand for the Q5 has climbed 50 per cent year-on-year. The Q5 has also been available as a TDI clean diesel since July and the high-performance SQ5 TFSI top-of-the-line model was launched in August.

In the United States, 114,411 customers drove Audi off the lots in the first three quarters of the year, an increase of 13.6 per cent.

In Europe, Audi saw sales grow by three per cent in September, selling around 74,350 units there.

The UK was particularly strong, where 26,070 cars were sold representing growth of 16.4 per cent.

In fact, more Audi units were sold in the UK in September than in its home market Germany, where it sold 21,227 units for the same period.

China again put in a creditable performance with sales rising by 28.2 per cent to 145,530 cars in September. Both the Q3 and Q5 accounted for around 72 per cent of that sum. The new A3 Sedan will arrive in the Chinese market next spring.

“Despite significantly more difficult conditions in many key markets, we closed the first three quarters again with stronger sales than in the same period last year. We thus continue to perform better in every region around the world than the respective overall automobile market,” said Luca de Meo.

Audi is fast catching BMW in the premium car market, having in recent years overtaken Mercedes-Benz to ascend to the number two spot.

In July BMW sales rose by 13.5 per cent to 128,594 units where Audi climbed by 9.8 per cent to 131,300 units.

BMW’s global deliveries already fell behind Audi’s in January and April, according to news agency Reuters.