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Ingolstadt (dpa) - With a strong business in China, the carmaker Audi has increased sales, sales and profits in the first quarter compared to the previous year and also exceeded the 2019 figures.

Nevertheless, the Ingolstadt-based VW subsidiary left its forecast for the full year unchanged on Friday: In view of the corona pandemic and the shortages in semiconductor supply, they are "cautiously optimistic about the coming months".

In the first quarter, Audi sold 463,000 cars worldwide - 207,000 or 45 percent of them in China. In the USA, too, demand rose sharply, while sales in Europe were 6 percent below the previous year. Sales rose to 14.1 billion euros, and the operating result climbed from a black zero in the previous year to 1.4 billion euros. With the profit from the China business posted in the financial result, Audi achieved a quarterly profit of 1.7 billion euros before taxes. The low discounts, the demand for the more profitable SUV and upper-class models, positive valuation effects in securing raw materials and savings had spurred the result, said Audi.

In the first quarter, Audi achieved a return on sales of 10 percent.

For the year as a whole, however, the company is only aiming for between 7 and 9 percent.

With the compact Q4 e-tron, Audi now also has a fully electric car in the mass segment on offer, which is intended to push the ramp-up of e-mobility.

But the company does not expect the return on electric cars to be at the level of combustion engines for two or three years.

And because of the lack of chip parts, Audi production stutters at home and abroad;

Time and again, the company has to cancel shifts and implement short-time work.

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In the first quarter of 2019, i.e. before the Corona crisis, Audi had sold 447,000 cars, had a turnover of 13.8 billion euros and generated a profit of 1.2 billion euros before taxes.

However, this was a significant decrease compared to 2018, because Audi had problems converting to the WLTP emissions standard.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210507-99-503953 / 2