FRANKFURT (Reuters) — Audi and Mercedes-Benz racked up more eye-popping sales in China in August, tapping into a rich vein of growth as living standards rise in the world’s most populous nation.

Audi said its China sales jumped by two-thirds to 22,350 units, bringing the total for the past eight months to nearly 152,800, a year-to-date gain of 63 percent.

This puts China on track to eclipse Germany as Audi’s single largest market as domestic new vehicle registrations amounted to 144,365 units through August, according to official data.

Audi controls a much bigger slice of the market than rivals like Mercedes-Benz.

Daimler said sales of its Mercedes cars sales in China more than doubled last month to 13,400, bringing the year-to-date total to 88,500, up 129 percent. Continue reading Audi, Mercedes forge ahead in China

SHANGHAI (Bloomberg) – BMW AG, the world’s largest luxury carmaker, Volkswagen AG‘s Audi unit and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz brand are making up for faltering sales at home by selling more cars in China even as industrywide demand cools in the world’s largest auto market.

Audi sold 53 percent more cars in China in July compared with a year earlier, while Daimler, the world’s second-largest luxury-car maker, tripled sales of its Mercedes-Benz brand to 14,500 vehicles and BMW raised its deliveries 82 percent to 13,852, the companies said this month. Sales of Audi and Mercedes fell in Germany for the month, while BMW sales increased 4 percent. Continue reading Audi, Mercedes, BMW rely on China as Germany stalls

INGOLSTADT, Germany (Bloomberg) — Volkswagen AG’s luxury division, Audi AG, aims for earnings before interest and taxes to rise faster than revenue this year as the A8 sedan and the new A1 compact win more customers in its largest markets.

“We now expect that operating profit will grow more than sales, provided that major car markets will continue to develop positively,” Chief Financial Officer Axel Strotbek said in remarks prepared for delivery today at Audi’s annual shareholder meeting in Ingolstadt, Germany.

The company has a goal of dethroning BMW AG as the world’s largest maker of luxury cars by 2015. Audi’s four-month sales totaled 360,750 cars and SUV, beating the 342,000 deliveries posted by Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz brand, leaving Audi as the No. 2 premium auto brand in the world based on unit sales. Continue reading Audi says A1, A8 should help 2010 profit rise faster than revenues