Audi history

The origins of AudiVolkswagen took the K70 for its own range, spelling
The company traces its origins back to 1899 andthe end of NSU as a separate brand.
August Horch. The first Horch automobile wasThe modern era of Audi
produced in 1901 in Zwickau. In 1910, Horch was forcedThe new merged company was known as "Audi NSU
out of the company he had founded. He then startedAuto Union AG", and saw the emergence of Audi as
a new company in Zwickau and continued using thea separate brand for the first time since the pre-war
Horch brand. His former partners sued him forera. The first new car of this regime was the Audi 100
trademark infringement and a German courtof 1968. This was soon joined by the Audi 80/Fox
determined that the Horch brand belonged to his(which formed the basis for the 1973 Volkswagen
former company. August Horch was forced to refrainPassat) in 1972 and the Audi 50 (later, rebadged as the
from using his own family name in his new carVolkswagen Polo) in 1974.
business. Horch immediately called a meeting at theThe Audi image at this time was a conservative one,
apartment of Franz Fikentscher to come up with aand so, a proposal from chassis engineer Jörg
new name for his company. During this meetingBensinger[2] was accepted to develop the four-wheel
Franz's son was quietly studying Latin in a corner ofdrive technology in Volkswagen's Iltis military vehicle for
the room. Several times he looked like he was on thean Audi performance car and rally racing car. The
verge of saying something but would just swallow hisperformance car, introduced in 1980, was named the
words and continue working, until he finally blurted out,"quattro," a turbocharged coupé which was also
"Father - audiatur et altera pars... wouldn't it be a goodthe first German large-scale production vehicle to
idea to call it AUDI instead of HORCH?". "Horch!" infeature full-time all-wheel drive through a center
German means "Hark!" which is "Audi" in Latin. Thedifferential (not counting the earlier British Jensen FF,
idea was enthusiastically accepted by everyoneproduced in small numbers). Commonly referred to as
attending the meeting. [1] It is also popularly (butthe "Ur-Quattro" (the "Ur-" prefix is a German
incorrectly) believed that Audi is an acronym whichaugmentative used, in this case, to mean "original" and
stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt".is also applied to the first generation of Audi's S4 and
Audi started with a 2612 cc (2.6 Liter) four cylinderS6 sport sedans, as in "UrS4" and "UrS6"), few of
model followed by a 3564 cc (3.6 L) model, as well asthese vehicles were produced (all hand-built by a single
4680 cc (4.7 L) and 5720 cc(5.7L) models. These carsteam) but the model was a great success in rallying.
were successful even in sporting events. AugustProminent wins proved the viability of all-wheel drive
Horch left the Audi company in 1920. The first sixracecars, and the Audi name became associated with
cylinder model ,4655 cc (4.7 L) appeared in 1924. Inadvances in automotive technology.
1928, the company was acquired by JørgenIn 1985, with the Auto Union and NSU brands
Rasmussen, owner of DKW, who bought the sameeffectively dead, the company's official name was
year the remains of the US automobile manufacturer,now shortened to simply "Audi AG".
Rickenbacker including the manufacturing equipmentIn 1986, as the Passat-based Audi 80 was beginning to
for eight cylinder engines. These engines were used indevelop a kind of "grandfather's car" image, the type
Audi Zwickau and Audi Dresden models that were89 was introduced. This completely new development
launched in 1929. At the same time, six cylinder and asold extremely well. However, its modern and dynamic
small four cylinder (licensed from Peugeot) modelsexterior belied the low performance of its base engine,
were manufactured. Audi cars of that era wereand its base package was quite spartan (even the
luxurious cars equipped with special bodywork.passenger-side mirror was an option.) In 1987, Audi put
The Auto Union eraforward a new and very elegant Audi 90, which had a
In 1932 Audi merged with Horch, DKW and Wanderermuch superior set of standard features. In the early
to form Auto Union. Before World War II, Auto Unionnineties, sales began to slump for the Audi 80 series,
used the four interlinked rings that make up the Audiand some basic construction problems started to
badge today, representing these four brands. Thissurface.
badge was used, however, only on Auto Union racingThis decline in sales was not helped in the USA by a
cars in that period while the member companies used60 Minutes report which purported to show that Audi
their own names and emblems. The technologicalautomobiles suffered from "unintended acceleration".
development became more and more concentratedThe 60 Minutes report was based on customer
and some Audi models were propelled by Horch orreports of acceleration when the brake pedal was
Wanderer built engines. During World War II the Horchpushed. Independent investigators concluded that this
Auto Union produced the Sd-Kfz 222 armored car,was most likely due to a close placement of the
which was used in the German army during the war. Itaccelerator and brake pedals (unlike American cars),
was powered by an 81 hp Horch/Auto Union V8and the inability, when not paying attention, to distinguish
Engine which had a top speed of 50 miles per hour.between the two. (In race cars, when manually
Another vehicle which was used in World War II todownshifting under heavy braking, the accelerator has
shuttle German military officials safely was known asto be used in order to match revs properly, so both
the Kraftfahrzeug (KFZ 11) or the Horch Type 80. Thepedals have to be close to each other to be operated
military used it as a light transport vehicle.by the right foot at once, toes on the brake, heel on
The four-ring logothe accelerator.). This did not become an issue in
The Audi emblem is four overlapping rings thatEurope, possibly due to more widespread experience
represent the Auto Union. The Audi emblemamong European drivers with manual transmissions.
symbolizes Audi amalgamation of Audi with DKW,60 Minutes ignored this fact and rigged a car to
Horch and Wanderer: the first ring represents Audi, theperform in an uncontrolled manner. The report
second represents DKW, third is Horch, and the fourthimmediately crushed Audi sales, and Audi renamed the
and last ring Wanderer.affected model (The 5000 became the 100/200 in
Pause and a new start1989, as it was elsewhere). Audi had contemplated
Auto Union plants were heavily bombed and partlywithdrawing from the American market until sales
destroyed during World War II. After the war, Zwickaubegan to recover in the mid-1990s. The turning point for
soon became part of the German DemocraticAudi was the sale of the new A4 in 1996, and with the
Republic and Auto Union headquarters were relocatedrelease of the A4/6/8 series, which was developed
too, Daimler-Benz acquired 88 per cent of Auto Uniontogether with VW and other sister brands (so called
and the next year, 1964, Benz sold the company to"platforms").
Volkswagen. In September 1965 the model wasCurrently, Audi's sales are growing strongly in Europe.
launched, also "relaunching" the Audi brand. The model2004 marked the 11th straight increase in sales, selling
was classified internally as the F103 and sold as simply779,441 vehicles worldwide. Record figures were
the "Audi" (the name being a model designation ratherrecorded from 21 out of about 50 major sales
than the manufacturer, which was still officially Automarkets. The largest sales increases came from
Union), but later came to be known as the Audi 72.Eastern Europe (+19.3%), Africa (+17.2%) and the
Developments of the model were named for theirMiddle East (+58.5%)[citation needed]. In March of
horsepower ratings and sold as the Audi 60, 75, 80,2005, Audi is building its first two dealerships in India
and Super 90. These models sold until 1972.following its high increase in sales in the region.
In 1969, Auto Union merged with NSU, based inAudi has recently started offering a computerised
Neckarsulm near Stuttgart. In the 1950s NSU had beencontrol system for its cars called Multi Media Interface
the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles but(MMI). This comes amid criticism of BMW's iDrive
had moved on to produce small cars like the NSUcontrol, essentially a rotating control knob designed to
Prinz (the TT and TTS versions are still popular ascontrol radio, satellite navigation, TV, heating and car
vintage race cars). NSU then focused on new rotarycontrols with a screen.
engines according to the ideas of Felix Wankel. In 1967,MMI has been generally well-received, as it requires
the new NSU Ro 80 was a space-age car well aheadless menu-surfing with its mass of buttons around a
of its time in technical details such as aerodynamics,central knob, with shortcuts to the radio or phone
light weight, and safety, but teething problems with thefunctions. The screen, either colour or monochrome, is
rotary engines put an end to the independence ofmounted on the upright dashboard, and on the A6 and
NSU. Today the Neckarsulm plant is used to produceA8, the controls are mounted horizontally. However, an
the larger Audi models."MMI Like" system is also available on the Audi A3 and
The mid-sized car that NSU had been working on, theA4 models when equipped with the optional Navigation
K70, was intended to slot between the rear-enginedSystem.
Prinz models and the futuristic Ro 80. However,