Audi Story – Facts, Profile, History, Founder, CEO

Audi is a German automobile manufacturing company. The car manufacturer is known for creating and marketing superior engineered and stylishly designed cars. Here are some Audi Facts to tell you about company

History of Audi

Audi was first started in the 20th century. A German engineer named, August Horch and his team of 15 workers started the company with name – A. HORCH and Cie in 1899.

In 1901, they rolled out their first car. Because of some unforeseen conditions, August Horch left the company. But, he dreamed of manufacturing cars in his name. But as he already launched the company with his name Horch, so, he launched another company with the name Audi which is Horch as in ‘Hear’ in Latin and founded Audi Automobilwerke GmbH Zwickau.

Though Horch set up the company in 1909, the official registration of the brand Audi took place in the year 1910. Audi manufactured the best cars during this period, but after First World War, things changed, as the company was forced to make vehicles for war during the war. After the war the company experienced huge loss. In 1920, Horch left the company. The management tried to bring the company out of the difficult times between 1927 and 1931, but later for survival they decided to merge it with other companies.

Audi Union GmbH

Four companies: Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer came together to create the AUDI UNION AG. The four rings in Audi’s logo are the emblem of these four companies. Company did well until the Second World War, but it was once again forced to make vehicles for war.

After Second World War

In 1965, Audi started using the 4 stroke engine instead of the 2 stroke engine. This innovation is mainly considered a pioneering moment in the history of the automobile industry.
From the year 2000 sales of Audi cars grew significantly. The client count reached 653,000 in the new millennium.
In 2008, this number increased to 1,003,000.
In 2012, the number of Audis sold in US increased from 408 to 480.

Current owner and CEO

The CEO and Chairman of the Board for Audi AG is Rupert Stadler. As of 2016.

Subsidiaries

Some of Audi’s subsidiaries include quattro GmbH, Lamborghini, Italdesign Giugiaro and Ducati.

Manufacturing Sites

Audi Has seven manufacturing plants in the world. Outside of Germany, Audi produces vehicles at:

• Aurangabad, India since 2006
• Martorell, Spain shared with SEAT and Volkswagen (Q3)
• Jakarta, Indonesia since 2011
• Gyr, Hungary, (TT and some A3 variants)
• Changchun, China since 1995
• Brussels, Belgium, acquired from Volkswagen in 2007 (A1)
• Bratislava, Slovakia, shared with Volkswagen, SEAT, Skoda and Porsche (Q7)
• The company is also building a manufacturing plant in Mexico and it is expected to begin
• operating by end of 2016, and make second gen Q5s.

Facts

• Only most experienced and the best factory employees get to build R8S
• Audi was the first to win Le Mans with both diesel and hybrid powered cars
• An Audi named Shelley scaled pikes peak with no driver
• The first Audi RS model was co-developed with Porsche