Luxury automakers like Audi do not need to sell millions of units every year to be able to turn a profit. But they do need to sell enough units to be able to stay in business and still provide us with the premium vehicles they’re known for. However, Audi’s Q3 reports show a decline in sales across its entire lineup, which may be a problem for the automaker. But one model seems to have escaped this decline.
The Audi compact luxury crossover seems to be doing quite well despite the decline and posting positive results which supersedes Audi’s best-selling Q5 by a sizable percentage margin. Audi’s overall sales may be slipping, but this model seems an outlier.
The Audi Q3 Is The Second Best Selling Model
While sales of every Audi in the lineup seem to be down, the compact Q3 crossover seems to be doing pretty well. Around 7,422 models were sold in the third quarter of 2024 compared to last year’s sales of 5,457 units, representing a 1.3 times increase or a 36 percent increase in sales over the same period. It’s even more impressive when you consider that overall Audi Q3 sales for the year are up 51 percent. There may be a few factors as to why this SUV had a good rise in sales, one of which may be its price.
With an MSRP of $37,400, the Audi Q3 starts at a great price point for such a premium luxury SUV, and would make it an obvious choice over lesser brands, as well as some of its direct competitors, like the Lexus NX, Mercedes GLA, and BMW X2. It offers great value when compared to the larger Q5, which is still Audi’s best-selling model, but has also been hit by a decline in sales with only 14,677 units sold compared to 19,365 in the previous year’s quarter, a 24 percent decrease.
Overall Sales Decline Of 21 Percent
In the third quarter of 2024, Audi sold a total of 46,752 vehicles, which is a 21 percent decline compared to the 59,535 vehicles sold in Q3 of 2023. This further shows with the overall yearly sales decline of 17 percent, which means Audi may end up negative by the end of 2024. Some models, however, have taken a bigger hit.
While models like the TT and R8 saw a 100 percent and 80 percent decline in sales respectively, this is to be expected as they’ve been discontinued. The Audi Q8 E-Tron, A3, and A8 saw the biggest decline in third-quarter sales by 51 percent, while others managed to stay between 20 and 30 percent. The best-selling vehicle was the Q5, but it still recorded a decline of 24 percent.
Models With Positive Sales
The only models to show positive results are the E-Tron GT with a five percent increase in sales to 673 models versus 638 from the previous year and the aforementioned Q3. For some reason, the Audi Q3 seems to be the best-selling vehicle in Q3 (pun intended). With Audi switching its lineup to mostly electrified vehicles, these results may change drastically when the new model rolls out.
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