The brand reported growth in all regions, with sales up 17.6% in Asia-Pacific, 7.8% in Europe and 3.0% in the Americas.

Sales chief Luca de Meo said: ‘We seamlessly built on the 2013 record figures in January and are taking this momentum into the new year. Our goal is to continue our growth in 2014 and develop more strongly than the worldwide overall car market.’

Strong growth was seen by the A3 range, up 67.2% worldwide in January to around 17,450 units at the start of the year, whilst the Q3 rose by 72.6% to around 15,000 units. Meanwhile, sales of the Q7 climbed by 40.8% in the first month of the year, with demand particularly pronounced in China, up 75%.

Within Europe, the brand saw rises in all of its five biggest European sales markets. In Germany, Audi increased its sales by 19.3%, in the United Kingdom by 9.2%. Meanwhile growth was also seen in France (+0.9%), Italy (+1.4%) and Spain (+19.2%).