Audi's profit soars 68% as Dieselgate effect fades

Audi has announced a significant leap in operating profit at its annual financial conference, despite sales in 2017 being just 0.6% up on the year before.

Following the announcement that it will build a new Tesla Model S rival called the e-tron GT, the premium car maker confirmed that it sold 1,878,105 Audi vehicles last year, with profit before tax leaping by 57% to €4.7bn (£4.15bn). After-tax profits were up 68.4% to €3.4bn (£3.07bn).

The size of Audi’s business has doubled since 2009, with revenue in 2017 hitting €60bn (£53bn). Although Audi’s headline profit margin for 2017 was 8.4% - in the brand’s target ‘corridor’ of 8-10% - the costs of diesel engine recall in the US and the Takata airbag recall pushed the final figure back down to 7.8%.

Lamborghini, which falls under Audi's control within the VW Group, sold 3815 cars in 2017, up 10.4%. Ducati sales crept up 0.8% to 55,871 units.

Audi's Lamborghini brand sold 3,815 cars in 2017.

The headline figures are especially impressive in light of the fact that some Audi models experienced significant sales declines. The ageing A1 was down more than 16% to 95,725 sales in 2017 and the  TT was down 23% to 23,899 sales.

The A3 and Q3 - both set to be replaced this year - were also well down. The A3 fell 13% to 321,934 sales and the Q3 was down 10.5% to 207,774 units.

However, the Audi Q7 saw very strong global sales of 106,004, up 3.9%, and the A5 shifted 106,824 units, up 58%. Audi’s biggest seller in 2017 was the A4 series, with 341,371 sales, up 1.3%.