The Audi Automotive Group (Audi AG) is on target for impressive sales gains this year with a 14 percent rise in world sales figures to 411,700 in the first nine months of 1997.

The Group has set a year-end target to increase vehicle sales by a minimum of ten percent, with higher profits and gross return on sales anticipated.

According to Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen, spokesman for Audi AG's Board of Management, Audi continues to grow according to schedule.

Dr Paefgen said that Audi is expecting its vehicle sales for 1997 as a whole to increase by more than 10 percent, and that the company was targeting higher profits and a better return on sales. In 1 996, the Group recorded a pre-tax sales return of 4.6 per cent.

By the beginning of October, 1997, worldwide vehicle sales rose to around 411,700 vehicles, up 14 per cent from 361,200 units for the corresponding 1996 period.

Production output for the first nine months of the year totalled approximately 415,000 Audi cars, up 16.6 percent from 355,800 in 1996. Engine production also increased 21 per cent from 457,700 to 553,900 engines.

In Australia, vehicle sales number a record 2,366 cars to November 30, 1997. According to Audi's marketing manager, Ms Gudrun Adam, Audi in Australia expects to increase vehicle sales to around 4,000 for 1998.

Already, the 1997 figures for Audi in Australia exceed the total retail sales figure for the 12 months to December, 1996.

In Western Europe (excluding Germany), 167,400 Audi cars were delivered to their new owners, up 15.2 percent from 145,300. In Germany itself, this total was increased by 13.7 per cent to around 181,300 cars. The market share in Germany was 6.9 percent, up from 5.9 percent for the first nine months of the year.

"Over the first nine months of the year we have recorded an increase of some 14 percent in vehicle sales in Western Europe and therefore made much better progress than the market as a whole, which grew by three per cent," Dr Paefgen said.

"While the overall German market dropped by one percent, Audi recorded growth of almost 14 percent. We are nevertheless cautious as competition has intensified," he added.

In the USA, vehicle sales rose by 26.3 percent to 24,900 cars and in the rest of the world, vehicle sales for the first nine months of 1997 were in the order of 38,000 cars (up 3.9 percent).

Sales revenue for the Audi Group rose by 19.6 percent to DM 16,297 million and capital investments increased by 17.6 percent to DM 1,154 million. As in previous years, new products accounted for two-thirds of this total. The remaining one-third has been dedicated to major projects such as the new paint shop and the new wind tunnel both located in Ingolstadt.

For the nine months to October 1997, Audi created 2,600 permanent new jobs. On September 30, 1997 the Audi Group had an overall a workforce of 38,600, up from 35,200 last year.