Audi History

 

Audi has truly weathered the many unpredictable storms that could have been thrown its way, and has almost a century’s worth of perseverance with no end in sight. This conglomerate was no marauding beast, but a gentle giant buying its time to show the world its true beauty and strength. The company was founded back in 1910 by August Horch from Zwickau, Germany, who had been forced out of the previous automobile enterprise he was involved in for as far back as 1899. Audi is now the world’s top producer of luxury-performance cars, and it has grown into a multi-billion dollar company, currently with its headquarters located in Ingolstadt, Germany.

 

August Horch was given a the bad end of the deal, cause as he began his own company a second time under the name “Horch”, his previous partners sued him and won, resulting in him not even being able to use his own name within the business. He had to rename his company, and it was his colleague Franz’s son who was studying Latin at the time shyly suggested “Audi” as “Horch” meant “Hark” or “Listen” in German, which is exactly what Audi stood for in Latin.

 

Audi had begun business with 4 different four-cylinder engines, all of which were highly successful at the racetrack. The company had begun to grow and change into a stronger household and enjoyed many years of accolade before August Horch left the company in 1920. Audi had their first six cylinder engine in 1924, but in four years later, Audi was bought by DKW owner, Jørgen Rasmussen, who also acquired dying US vehicle manufacturer, Rickenbacker, which gave Audi the means to experiment with the 8 cylinder technology. The cars that were produced in and around that time were some of the most opulent and outfitted cars of the time.

 

The progressiveness of the Audi brand was a rocky one with so many changes at the helm, and constraint within the hierarchy, plus Audi had serious competition in the form of other German luxury car manufacturers to keep up with, and strive to stand out. Audi was making the business rounds and a merger with Horch, DKW, and Wanderer occurred in 1932 to form the “Auto Union”. Audi began showing strength in numbers as the newly merged companies partially united under the enigmatic four rings logo, where each ring represented the four parts of the whole. But the rings where only used on the racing vehicles of that period, as the individual companies used their respective logos and name.

 

Before World War II, the technology that Audi was producing got more and more intense and refined, in addition to the superbly designed engines that either Wanderer or Horch spewed out, Audi was doing well within these times. And during World War II, Auto Union and Horch partnership produced cars for the German army such as the Sd-Kfz 222 armored car, which was powered by a V8 engine, and the Kraftfahrzeug (KFZ 11) of the Horch Type 80, which was used to transport German officials securely. But in midst of the war the Auto Union plants were heavily bombed, making it impossible for work to continue. Zwickau was relocated to the German occupied zone of the Soviet, and the original Auto Union was separated, but Audi by itself quickly became a communist company “VEB Automobilwerk Zwickau” (AWZ). Whereas the new Auto Union was instituted in Ingolstadt (Bavaria), where many, many previous employees from the bombed factories came to restart their jobs, but under the DKW emblem. They were producing 2 stroke engines at the time.

 

In 1959 Auto Union was acquired 100% by Daimler-Benz, but in 1964 Volkswagen brought the Ingolstadt factory and the brands of the Auto Union. The two stroke engines were now obsolete, as consumers gravitated more towards the newer four stroke engines. The last DKW model DKWF102 rolled out with a four-stroke engine, and some aesthetic alterations, as Volkswagen had done away with the brand. They wanted to relaunch the entire Audi brand but couldn’t as that name still officially belonged to the Auto Union, but the created the F103, and sold it as model designation “Audi” rather than a brand. That “Audi would later be known as the Audi 72, as later models were created and named for their horsepower abilities up until 1972; Audi 60, 75, 80, and Super 90.

 

NSU and Auto Union merged in 1969; NSU had become famous for their motorcycle making, and their NSU Prinz (TT & TTS). They later focused on ahead-of-time rotary engines, and they created the NSU Ro 80 futuristic car with state of art technical proportions, but their engine had a lot of problems, and therefore made them lose their independence to Volkswagen. The NSU plant now produces Audi’s larger cars like the R8, and the RS.  Another new company emerged “Audi NSU Auto Union AG”, finally with the permission for Audi to be a separate brand for the first time since before the war, and their first car was the Audi 100, followed by the Audi 80/ Fox, and the Audi 50 which was hugely successful.

 

Audi was a calm entity, not wanting to move to quickly but with so many innovations looming in wings, they finally developed a turbo-charged coupe and a rally car with all wheel drive the “Audi Quattro” on a large scale basis, the first ever all wheel drive to be in mass production. Both receiving praise, and Audi had now become a leader in vehicular technology, this lead to the death of the Auto Union and NSU brands in 1985, allowing it to be just “Audi AG”. With constant cars in development and production; RS2, S2, S4, S6, Audi 90, 4000 Coupe or Cabriolet, 100, 200, 5000, A2, and the V8, things were finally shaping up and Audi looked solid in all fronts. But a startling report by 60 Minutes (USA) inciting that Audi vehicles were not safe, left the company in turmoil with sales dropping drastically all over.

 

The fledgling car marque was given a lifeline in late 1995 with the development of the A4 B5 model, with skyrocketed the company back into the high stratosphere where their competitors resided comfortably, then the B6 making Audi a household name. Later developing with Volkswagen further models within the B7, currently the B8, also creating the A3, S3, A5, S5, A6, S6, RS6, A8, S8, RS4, the TT, A6 allroad Quattro, and the Q7 series, all based on various platforms. Audi gained dominance over all its competitors within the last 14 years, and continues where they started with strong racing models past and present; Sport Quattro, R8 LMP, R10 LMP, and the Sport. Also Audi has a host of concept cars and prototypes, some involved with a rich history of auto racing, rallying, and touring.

 

Audi has gained many titles in these arenas, building a stronger heritage and is still one of the foremost leaders in automotive technology. Audi also has received many awards from critics around the world, as they continue to override their competition massively on all fronts breaking sales records year after year shocking the world, and making everyone pay attention at the giant in front of them.