Audi aims to sell more than one million autos

German luxury car maker Audi, which is owned by Volkswagen, said Tuesday it aimed to sell more than one million autos this year and reach a pre-crisis record set in 2008.

Audi sales fell last year by 12.7 percent to 29.8 billion euros (40.5 billion dollars) with the delivery of 949,729 vehicles, a drop of 5.4 percent.

The company’s operating profit was more than 42 percent lower at 1.6 billion euros.

But finance director Axel Strotbek told a press conference in Ingolstadt, southeastern Germany: “We want to sell more than one million Audis this year and raise our revenue and operating profit significantly with respect to 2009.”

Audi is banking on sales of its new line of compact A1 models and its growing presence in China to improve results.

It wants to become the leading luxury car maker by 2015 and is drawing even with number two Daimler, which posted a loss of 2.6 billion euros last year, in part owing to its dependence on the mature US market.