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History of the Audi brand

The German automobile company Audi AG, which is part of the VAG concern, has a fairly rich history. On July 16, 1909, one of the well-known engineers at that time, August Horch, founded the Audi Automobilwerke GMBH company, which was based in the city of Zwickau in eastern Germany. Audi produced its first car in 1910, it was originally named “Horch” (translated from German as “listen”).

One of August Horch’s partners suggested changing “Horch” to the Latin word “Audi”, which translates the same way. Until 1921, the company was engaged in the production of engines and spare parts. The situation changed dramatically when, in the same year, Audi introduced a new car model with a traditional left-hand drive. In 1928, the DKW motorcycle manufacturer bought the company, and 3 years later the world’s first compact front-wheel drive car DKW F1 appears.

On June 29, 1932, 4 companies (Audi, DKW, Horch and Zschopauer) merge into a single concern Auto Union AG Audi, 4 rings became its symbol. The initiator of this event was the Saxon State Bank, which at that time was the creditor of all these firms. In the future, Audi has been developing sports cars.

As a result of the Second World War, all the equipment of factories in Saxony was almost completely destroyed. Shortly before the end of the war, the leadership of Auto Union managed to move to Bavaria, where they transported part of the surviving equipment. At the end of 1945, a spare parts warehouse appears in Ingolstadt. The first post-war car Auto Union Gmbh appeared only 5 years later, it was a 2-door DKW F89 P. In 1965, Auto Union Gmbh is part of Volkswagen. At first, the German concern wanted Audi to focus entirely on the production of the legendary Volkswagen Beetle Beetle and not develop new models.

However, the chief designer of the “four rings” Ludwig Kraus had his own opinion on this matter – the engineer secretly from VW began to design the car. Ultimately, the concern found out about this venture, but no one began to interfere with this. This is how the new Audi 100 is born, opening the door to a whole class of Audi cars of the future. In 1969, Auto Union GmbH and NSU Motorenwerke AG are merged into a single enterprise Audi NSU Auto Union AG.

Ferdinand Piech became the head of the design department of the new company – during his leadership, Audi reached great heights. For the first time, the proprietary quattro all-wheel drive (1980), turbocharging technology (1979) are patented, in addition, a 5-cylinder engine appears.

A new milestone in the history of Audi began in 1993, when the company was reformed into the Audi Group. The company included Lamborghini, SEAT and Cosworth Technology. In 1993, the Ingolstadt company released 3 new items that became the basis of the Audi lineup for many years: the A4 (golf class), the A6 business class sedan and the flagship A8. In 1998, the design icon of the time rolled off the assembly line at the Audi factory, the first-generation TT sports model (8N). A year later, the first car with an all-aluminum body is released – this is the Audi A2 compact MPV. In 2005, the first Audi Q7 SUV appeared in the model range.

A year later, the company shocked the world audience with its Audi R8 supercar, which combines high technology and unprecedented dynamic performance. Audi is currently the leading car manufacturer in the world. The company is constantly improving, dynamically discovering new technologies and introducing innovations.