Audi
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Audi
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| Owned by | Volkswagen |
| Subsidiary |
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| Introduction |  Audi is the biggest subsidiary of Volkswagen
group. Under Group CEO Ferdinand Piech s platform sharing strategy, most
of the Audi models share platforms and extensive components with other brands
of the group. (See Volkswagen for exact details about which cars relate to
which cars) Moreover, Audi is plant in Hungary also build the 1.8-litre
20V engine 2.4 and 2.8-litre V6 for the whole VW group.
As VW is now moving upmarket to target Mercedes-Benz, Audi will not be positioned above its parent brand but it will emphasis more about styling and sportiness. This put it right against BMW and the fast-rising Jaguar. The strongest aspect of Audi is perhaps the build quality, which is even better than BMW and Mercedes. The styling in recent years, starting from A4 and then TT, is also worth praising. Audi is also good at advertising, so good to the extent that the 5-valve technology and Quattro are promoted as if even better than they actually are. Take an Audi S6 against a BMW M5 and you ll know these technology are not really as impressive as said. |
| Sales figure | Audi produced 619,000 units in 1998, rose from 558,000 units of 1997. |
| Location | Headquarters and R&D center
: Ingolstadt Main plants in Germany : Ingolstadt ( A3, A4 ), Neckarsulm ( A2, A6, A8 ) Main plants in Hungary : Gyor ( TT and engines ) |
| Brief History | Audi did not have a glorious
history. It was formed by four small car makers, Audi, Horch, Wanderer and
DKW in 1932. The company was named "Auto Union", with a company logo consisting
of 4 rings, which represent the four companies. The logo is still used today.
Although Auto Union was described as the "second largest car maker in Germany", in then mass production was not yet appeared there, unlike USA, France and Italy. The Auto Union concentrated on making luxurious cars in limited amount, and took part in motoring racing with a mid-engined GP car designed by Ferdinand Porsche. In circuit it was beaten by Mercedes-Benz, as in road car production. The road car division was really weak, not just in terms of output but also in terms of reputation. Open any classic car book and you can hardly find a single Auto Union car. In fact, it still produced cars powered by 2-stroke engines until the 60 is. It was acquired by Daimler-Benz in the 50 is but not much was done. Volkswagen bought it in the mid-60 s, enlarging its factory to build popular Beetle. More money was invested to develop a new four stroke engine and new cars. Further helped by the integration of NSU, which was renowned for engineering innovation and merged with Auto Union to form Audi NSU in 1969 after bankrupted, Audi developed the first mass production models, 80 and then 100. The latter set a production record of over 800,000 units since its introduction in 1976.
In 1985, Audi NSU was renamed to simply Audi AG. |
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The 80 and 100 continued
to evolve into today is A4 and A6, but it was not as easy as thought.
Until the mid 90 s, Audi was regarded as lack of a distinctive identity
- neither bread and butter nor prestigious. The invention of Quattro in
1980 would have built a solid sporty image, but the mass production, front-wheel-drive
models failed to impress keen drivers. Volkswagen wasted a lot of money
and effort to put the company onto rails, first with improved build quality,
then introduced a V6 and V8, and then even more advanced technology.