In the RICH offer of as many as 18 models that Audi offers on the American market, the title of the best seller in the third quarter of this year was taken by a completely unexpected winner. The electric Q6 e-tron overshadowed the long-standing Q3 and Q5 models, which attracted a lot of public attention.
What is behind this turnaround?
But the electric model’s success is less a testament to a surge in enthusiasm for electrification than to a challenging year for Audi’s conventionally powered vehicle line. Sales of electric models were also boosted by a rush by buyers to take advantage of federal incentives before they expire.
Numbers that reveal everything
Audi sold 10,059 Q6 e-trons in the US in the last quarter. While this is a 22,761 percent increase over the same period last year, the figure is somewhat irrelevant as deliveries in 2024 were only symbolic. A total of 17,021 units of the model have been sold since the beginning of this year.
The reason for the sudden surge in demand is the elimination of the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles, which encouraged buyers to take advantage of the benefit while it was still available. Interestingly, the Q6 e-tron did not qualify for the incentive when purchased outright, but it did when leased. Although Audi did not release official figures, it is assumed that most of the models sold in the third quarter ended up in leases.
Decline in sales of classic models
With five-digit sales figures, the electric SUV Q6 e-tron overtook the traditional leader, the Q5 model. In the third quarter, 9,719 copies of the compact SUV were sold, bringing the total annual sales to 32,633. Although the Q5 is still the best-selling model overall, it recorded a 17 percent sales decline compared to 2024. Looking only at the third quarter, the drop is even more drastic and amounts to 34 percent.
The Q3 suffered a similar fate, with 5,597 units sold, down 25 percent. The Q7 followed with 4,281 units sold, down 24 percent in the quarter. However, the Q7 grew 5 percent year-on-year, showing that the situation is better when looking at the bigger picture.
Among the few models with growth is the electric Q4 e-tron, whose sales in the third quarter increased by 32 percent to 2,956 units. On the other hand, sales fell for almost all other models, including the A5 (-34%), A6 (-41%) and Q8 (-22%). A negative trend was also recorded for other electric vehicles such as the e-tron GT (-3%) and the Q8 e-tron, which experienced a drastic drop of 98 percent.
Overall results for Audi
At the brand level, Audi sold 46,758 vehicles in the third quarter, almost identical to last year. However, looking at total sales since the beginning of the year, the brand recorded a decline of 8 percent, with a total of 128,709 cars and SUVs sold in the United States.
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