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Audi is an automobile maker in Germany, which is part of the Volkswagen group, VAG. The company is headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany.
The company is traced back to 1899 and August Horch. The first Horch automobile was produced by him in 1901. In 1910, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded and could not even use his own name anymore in connection with cars. As the German word "horch!" means "listen!" in Latin, he used the Latin equivalent of his name, "audi!" for his next effort.
In 1932 Audi merged with Horch, DKW and Wanderer to form the Auto Union. The four interlinked rings that make up the Audi badge today represent these four brands.
Following World War II, the company focused efforts on the DKW brand, but their two-stroke engines became unpopular. In September 1965 they "relaunched" the Audi brand, with the introduction of a 72-HP 4-door sedan, with a modern four stroke engine driving the front wheels.
In the 1970s, Audi merged with NSU, in the 1950 the world largest manufacturer of motorbikes, based in Neckarsulm near Stuttgart. NSU had moved on to produce small cars like the Prinz (the TT and TTS versions are still popular as vintage race cars), but then focussed on new rotary engines according to the ideas of Felix Wankel. In 1967, the new NSU Ro 80 was a space age car well ahead of its time in technical details like aerodynamics, light weigth, safety etc., but teething problems with the rotary engines put an end to the independency of NSU. Nowadays, Audi produces several lines of his cars in Neckarsulm.
Over the next thirty years Audi released a series of derivatives of this model at various horsepower ratings. With the "quattro" of the 1980s, a 4WD turbocharged sportscar, Audi finally managed to distinguish itself as leader in technology, despite not selling too many of the original "Ur-quattro".
The early set of regular cars had culminated in the Audi 80, from which all subsequent generations descend, expanded by the "quattro" features. In 1986, as the Audi 80 was beginning to develop a kind of "grandfather's car" image, the type 89 was introduced. This completely new development hit the market like a bomb and 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 nineties, 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 USA by a 60 Minutes report which purported to show that Audi automobiles suffered from "unintended acceleration". The 60 Minutes report was based on customer reports of the car acceleration when the brake pedal was pushed. Independent investigators concluded that this was most likely due to a close placement of the accelerator and brake pedals (unlike American cars), and the inability to distinguish between the two.
(In race cars, when manually downshifting under heavy braking, the accelerator has to be used in order to match revs properly, so both pedals have to be close to each other to be operated by the right foot at once, toes on the brake, heels on the gas. It seems this fact is not very well known among USA citizens which are used to automatic gearboxes and only two well separated pedals.)
60 Minutes ignored this rather uncommon evidence and set up a car to perform in an uncontrolled manner. The report immediatly crushed Audi sales, and forced the renaming of the effected model (the 5000 become the 100/200, as in Germany and elsewhere). Audi sales did not recover until the mid 90s, with the release of the A4/6/8 series, which are developed together with VW and other sister brands (socalled "platforms").
Audi's reputation over the years has been high performance and leading technology. The company has participated (and sometimes dominated) in numerous rallies and racing competitions. In 1980 the release of the Audi Quattro, a four wheel drive turbocharged car with no equal, that went on to win rallies and races worldwide, is considered one of the most significant rally cars of all time. It is one of the first to take advantage of the recently changed rules which allowed the use of four-wheel-drive in competition racing. Many critics doubted the viability of racers, thinking them to be too heavy and complex, yet the Quattro was an instant success, winning its first rally on its first outing. It won competition after competition for the next two years.
In 1995 Audi was barred from entering its Audi S4 into the BTCC because of its domination on the sport. The Quattro (four-wheel drive) system was banned because Audi was unbeatable in the competition.
Audi is the only car manufacturer that produces 100% galvanized vehicles (to prevent corrosion). An all-aluminum car was brought forward by Audi, and in 1997 the Audi A8 was launched, which introduced aluminum space frame technology. Audi introduced a new series of vehicles in the mid-nineties and continues to pursue leading-edge technology and high performance.
From 2000 on, Audi won the 24h race in Le Mans four times in a row, in 2003 badged as Bentley though.
The motto of Audi is: "Vorsprung durch Technik" which translates to "Progress through Technology".