Auto Union Deutschland Inglostadt

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• Auto Union Deutschland Inglostadt

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The origins of Audi
The company traces its origins back to 1899 and
August Horch. The first Horch automobile was
produced in 1901 in Zwickau, in former East
Germany. In 1910, 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 forced to refrain from using his
own family name in his new car business. As the
word "horch!" translates to "listen!" in Old
German, August Horch settled on the Latin
equivalent of his name - "audi!". It is also
popularly believed that Audi is an acronym which
stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt".
Audi produces over 2 million vehicles annually at
its main production site in Ingolstadt. Audi has
another production plant in Neckarsulm.
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The Auto Union era

In 1932 Audi merged with Horch, DKW and Wanderer
to form the Auto Union. Before World War II, Auto
Union used the four interlinked rings that make
up the Audi badge today, representing these four
brands. This badge was used, however, only on
Auto Union racing cars in that period while the
member companies used their own names and
emblems. The technological development became
more and more concentrated and some Audi models
were propelled by Horch or Wanderer built engines.
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Pause and a new start

• Auto Union plants were heavily bombed and partly
  destroyed during World War II. After the war,
  Zwickau soon became part of the German Democratic
  Republic and Audi headquarters were moved to
  Ingolstadt. In that period, the four interlinked
  rings were used together with the DKW badge. The
  company focused efforts on the DKW brand, but
  their two-stroke engines became unpopular. In
  1958, Daimler-Benz company acquired 88 per cent
  of Auto Union and the next year became its sole
  owner. Daimler-Benz developed a 72 hp (54 kW)
  four-door sedan, with a modern four stroke engine
  driving the front wheels. This model appeared in
  September 1965, "relaunching" the Audi brand.
  Daimler-Benz sold the company to Volkswagen in
  1964.

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• In 1969, Audi merged with NSU, based in
  Neckarsulm near Stuttgart. In the 1950s NSU had
  been the world's largest manufacturer of
  motorcycles but had moved on to produce small
  cars like the NSU Prinz (the TT and TTS versions
  are still popular as vintage race cars). NSU then
  focused on new rotary engines according to the
  ideas of Felix Wankel.

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The modern era of Audi
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• The first Audi of the modern era 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. The image of Audi cars was
  perceived as conservative, so a proposal was
  accepted from their chassis engineer Jorg
  Bensinger to develop the four-wheel drive
  technology in Volkswagen's Iltis military vehicle
  for an Audi performance car and for a rally car.
• The performance car was known as the "Quattro" of
  the 1980s, a four wheel drive turbocharged
  sports-car based on the Audi Coupe. It was a
  great success in rallying and so Audi became
  associated with being a leader in technology,
  despite not selling too many of the original
  "Ur-Quattro". (The Ur-Quattro was the first Audi
  Quattro produced, and it has been designated as
  such to be distinguished from later Audi models
  that incorporate Audi's AWD system (which is also
  named "quattro" with a lower case q). The "Ur-"
  prefix is derived from the German word for
  "original", and is also used to refer to the
  first generation of Audi's S4 and S6 sport sedans
  ("UrS4" and "UrS6").

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THE END