Audi President Keogh links Audi momentum to the brand's rich racing traditions

· Keynote speech at a leading automotive conference compares the business model driving Audi gains to lean, quick-response racing team
· Audi of America shares racing's "challenger" mindset to establish luxury market edge
· Technology transfers from TDI clean diesel to advanced matrix beam lighting provide product leadership fueling sustained sales gains

TRAVERSE CITY, MI - Audi of America President Scott Keogh compared the business model driving the brand’s U.S. and global momentum to the culture infusing the dominating Audi Sport racing teams. 

Keogh used his keynote speech at the 48th Annual Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars to detail this crucial factor behind the 92% Audi U.S. sales improvement since 2004. 

He confirmed that Audi expects to set a new annual U.S. record of more than 150,000 vehicle sales this year. That would be the fourth consecutive full-year record for the luxury car brand and contrasts with the 77,917 vehicles sold less than a decade ago. 

Audi recently reported that July was its 31st month of record U.S. sales. AUDI AG also confirmed that it would record sales of 1.5 million vehicles this year, two years earlier than promised.

Audi views motorsports as a vital proving grounds
The key to these results is the Audi longstanding commitment to motorsports as a proving grounds for advanced technologies, engineering refinements and a lean organization approach to developing premium customer cars.

The important role racing has played in Audi traditions extends back to the Silver Arrow Grand Prix racers of the 1930s, includes the Pikes Peak rally cars of the 1980s, and more recently can be found in the dominance Audi has enjoyed by winning 12 of the past 14 Le Mans 24-hour endurance races.

“If you race, but only race, all you’ve done is define a motorsports team,” Keogh explained. “But if your top priority is to transfer technology and integrate the lessons from racing, then you have defined an entire company. This is why Audi races and it captures our clear view on the value of motorsports.”

Racing also provides the basis of the Audi “challenger” culture, which is coinstantly looking beyond recent successes to find strategies and innovations that can keep the brand ahead of its leading luxury market rivals. It’s the same approach Audi Sport uses to maintain its edge on the race track.