Audi CEO expects brand to meet goals in 2012 and continue growth in 2013

Audi AG announced it is on track to reach its goal of selling a record 1.4 million vehicles in 2012.

The world’s second-largest maker of luxury cars expects sales to grow next year as well. “We are successfully performing against the European trend. We expect Audi to perform well 2013,” Audi CEO Rupert Stadler told journalists today in Ingolstadt, Germany. Audi’s operating profit in the first nine months of this year fell to 11.1 percent of sales from 12.1 percent a year earlier, while deliveries rose 8.8 percent.

Audi plans to building a factory in San Jose Chiapa, Mexico, in 2013 following in the footstepts of its German competitors BMW and Mercedes-Benz which added production outside their home market.

Until three years ago, Audi produced 75 percent of its vehicles in the Germany, in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, focusing largely on increasing quality and expanding its model lineup. Since then, Audi has begun making the A1 subcompact, A7 four-door luxury coupe and Q5 sport-utility vehicle.

In order to accommodate added production, Audi used spare capacity at a former VW facility in Belgium and a factory owned by Volkswagen’s Spanish brand SEAT. In contrast, BMW and Mercedes have long-established factories in South Africa, the U.S. and China.