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HISTORY OF THE AUDI | PORTFOLIO | OUR FACILITY | RELATED SITES
AUDI
HISTORY 1909 The Birth of a Company and its Name The company traces its origins back to 1899 and August Horch. The first Horch automobile was produced in 1901 in Zwickau. In 1909, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded. He then started a new company in Zwickau and continued using the Horch brand His former partners sued him for trademark infringement and a German court determined that the Horch brand belonged to his former company. August Horch was barred from using his own family name in his new car business, so he called a meeting at the apartment of Franz Fikentscher to come up with a new name for his company. During this meeting Franz's son was quietly studying Latin in a corner of the room. Several times he looked like he was on the verge of saying something but would just swallow his words and continue working, until he finally blurted out, "Father - audiatur et altera pars... wouldn't it be a good idea to call it audi instead of horch?". "Horch!" in German means "Hark!" or "hear", which is "Audi" in Latin (compare audible). The idea was enthusiastically accepted by everyone attending the meeting. It is sometimes incorrectly said that AUDI is a acronym which stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt", but this is merely a clever backronym and not the true origin of the company name. Audi started with a 2,612 cc (2.6 litre) four cylinder model followed by a 3564 cc (3.6 L) model, as well as 4680 cc (4.7 L) and 5720 cc (5.7L) models. These cars were successful even in sporting events. The first six cylinder model,[clarification needed] 4655 cc (4.7 L) appeared in 1924. August Horch left the Audi company in 1920 for a high position at the ministry of transport, but he was still involved with Audi as a member of the board of trustees. In September 1921, Audi became the first German car manufacturer to present a production car, the Audi Type K, with left-handed drive. Left-hand drive spread and established dominance during the 1920s because it provided a better view of oncoming traffic, making overtaking maneuvers safer. 1932 Front Wheel Drive In August 1928 Jørgen Rasmussen, the owner of DKW, acquired the majority of shares in Audiwerke AG. In the same year, Rasmussen bought the remains of the US automobile manufacturer Rickenbacker, including the manufacturing equipment for eight cylinder engines. These engines were used in Audi Zwickau and Audi Dresden models that were launched in 1929. At the same time, six cylinder and four cylinder (licensed from Peugeot) models were manufactured. Audi cars of that era were luxurious cars equipped with special bodywork. In 1932, Audi merged with Horch, DKW and Wanderer, to form Auto Union. It was during this period that the company offered the Audi Front which was the first European car to combine a six cylinder engine with front-wheel drive, using a unit shared with Wanderer but turned through 180 degrees so that the drive shaft faced the front. Reflecting the economic pressures of the time, Auto Union concentrated increasingly on smaller cars through the 1930s, so that by 1938 the company's DKW brand accounted for 17.9% of the German car market while Audi held only 0.1% Post - World War II Like most German manufacturing, at the onset of World War II the Auto Union plants were retooled for military production, and immediately were subjected heavy bombing for the rest of the war, leaving them all severely damaged. Over run by the Russian Army, in 1945 on the orders of the Soviet Union military administration, they were dismantled as part of war reparations. Following this, the company's entire assets were expropriated without compensation. On 17 August 1948 Auto Union AG of Chemnitz was deleted from the commercial register. These actions had the effect of liquidating Germany's Auto Union AG. The remains of the Audi plant of Zwickau became the VEB (for "People Owned Enterprise") Automobilwerk Zwickau, AWZ for short (which translates into English as Automobile factory Zwickau). The former Audi factory in Zwickau, restarted assembly of the pre-war-models in 1949. These DKW models were renamed to IFA F8 and IFA F9 and were similar to the West German versions. West and East German models were equipped with the traditional and renowned DKW two-stroke engines. After a period of ownership under Daimler-Benz, in 1964 Volkswagen Group acquired the factory in Ingolstadt and the trademark rights of the Auto Union. Two-stroke engines became less popular towards the middle of the 1960s as customers were more attracted to the comfortable four-stroke engines. In September 1965, the DKW F102 got a four-stroke engine implanted and some front and rear styling changes. Volkswagen dumped the DKW brand because of its associations with two-stroke technology, and having classified the model internally as the F103, sold it simply the "Audi." Later developments of the model were named for their horsepower ratings and sold as the Audi 60, 75, 80, and Super 90, selling until 1972. The first new car of this regime was the Audi 100 of 1968. This was soon joined by the Audi 80/Fox (which formed the basis for the 1973 Volkswagen Passat) in 1972 and the Audi 50 (later rebadged as the Volkswagen Polo) in 1974. The Audi 50 was a seminal design in many ways, because it was the first incarnation of the Golf/Polo concept, one that led to a hugely successful world car. 1986 - Audi's Climb In 1986, as the Passat-based Audi 80 was beginning to develop a kind of "grandfather's car" image, the type 89 was introduced. This completely new development sold extremely well. However, its modern and dynamic exterior belied the low performance of its base engine, and its base package was quite spartan (even the passenger-side mirror was an option.) In 1987, Audi put forward a new and very elegant Audi 90, which had a much superior set of standard features. In the early 1990s, sales began to slump for the Audi 80 series, and some basic construction problems started to surface. This decline in sales was not helped in the United States by a 60 Minutes report which showed faked footage an Audi 5000 suffering from a supposed problem of "unintended acceleration" when the brake pedal was pushed, and emotional interviews with six people who had sued Audi after they crashed their cars. Independent investigators concluded there was no mechanical problem, and driver error, partially due to drivers not paying attention to the closer placement of the accelerator and brake pedals than some American cars. The difference was partially attributed to European driver's preferences for smoother heel-and-toe driving techniques. This did not become an issue in Europe, possibly due to more widespread experience among European drivers with manual transmissions. The report immediately crushed Audi sales, and Audi renamed the affected model (The 5000 became the 100/200 in 1989, as it was elsewhere). Audi had contemplated withdrawing from the American market until sales began to recover in the mid-1990s. The turning point for Audi was the sale of the new A4 in 1996, and with the release of the A4/A6/A8 series, which was developed together with VW and other sister brands (so called "platforms"). Currently, Audi's sales are growing strongly in Europe. 2004 marked the 11th straight increase in sales, selling 779,441 vehicles worldwide. Record figures were recorded from 21 out of about 50 major sales markets. The largest sales increases came from Eastern Europe (+19.3%), Africa (+17.2%) and the Middle East (+58.5%). In March 2005, Audi built its first two dealerships in India following its high increase in sales in the region. The History of the Four Rings The Audi emblem of the four rings denotes one of Germany's oldest automobile manufacturers. It symbolizes the merger in 1932 of four previously independent motor vehicle manufacturers: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. These companies are the foundation stones on which the present-day AUDI AG is built.
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