Audi targets expansion in smaller Chinese cities

Audi AG, the world's second-largest maker of luxury cars, forecast sales in China will increase by about 11 percent this year, driven by rising incomes and expansion into smaller cities in the country.

Deliveries should reach 450,000 units this year in China, CEO Rupert Stadler told reporters in the southern Chinese city of Foshan, where the automaker is building its second factory in the country.

Audi sold 405,838 vehicles last year, a 30 percent increase from the year earlier, according to company data. Audi's expansion in China, where it leads in premium car deliveries, is crucial to helping parent Volkswagen AG achieve its goal of overtaking General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp to become the world's biggest automaker by 2018.