Audi AG, also known as Audi, is a German luxury car manufacturer with headquarters in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. Its German pronunciation is [adi ae](listen). In nine manufacturing plants across the world, Audi produces automobiles as a division of its parent business, the Volkswagen Group.
August Horch, an engineer, formed the first businesses in the early 20th century, including Horch and the Audiwerke, as well as two additional manufacturers, DKW and Wanderer, which eventually led to the founding of Auto Union in 1932. In the 1960s, Volkswagen purchased Auto Union from Daimler-Benz, ushering in the contemporary Audi era. [9] Volkswagen combined Auto Union and NSU Motorenwerke in 1969, reintroducing the Audi brand with the 1965 release of the Audi F103 series and giving the business its current structure.
The Latin translation of the founder’s last name, August Horch, served as the inspiration for the firm name. Horch, which in German means “listen,” becomes audi in Latin. The four rings of the Audi logo each stand for one of the four automakers that joined together to establish Auto Union, the firm that preceded Audi. Vorsprung durch Technik, or “Being Ahead via Technology,” is Audi’s catchphrase. [10] One of the most popular luxury car brands worldwide is Audi, which is also sold by rival German automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz. [11]
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What was Audi’s previous name?
German automaker AUDI AG makes vehicles under the Audi brand. The Volkswagen Group includes it. The Latinized version of founder August Horch’s last name, which is the German word for “listen,” served as the inspiration for the name Audi. Germany’s Ingolstadt serves as the home base for Audi.
August Horch, a pioneer in the automobile industry, established August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH in Germany on July 16, 1909. A short while later, he changed the company’s name to Audi Automobilwerke, the Latin version of his last name.
To become Auto Union AG in 1932, Audi merged with Horch, DKW, and Wanderer. The brands Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer are represented by the four rings of the Audi logo. The four interconnected rings were a unique feature of Auto Union AG’s racing cars prior to World War II. The names and logos of the member companies were used.
On September 3rd, 1949, Auto Union GmbH was founded in Ingolstadt after a series of adjustments as WWII drew to a close.
On April 24, 1958, Daimler-Benz AG purchased the bulk of Auto Union GmbH’s shares, followed by the remaining ones. Auto Union was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Stuttgart-based Daimler Group from this day until the end of 1965.
Of December 1964, Volkswagenwerk AG bought the bulk of the stock in Auto Union GmbH; towards the end of 1966, Audi became a fully owned VW subsidiary.
The newly acquired NSU Motorenwerke AG by VW and the Ingolstadt-based Auto Union GmbH amalgamated to establish Audi NSU Auto Union AG in March 1969.
A four-wheel-drive sports coup was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1980. The first four-wheel-drive high-performance car was the Audi Quattro. Only trucks and off-road vehicles had previously utilised this drive concept. The Audi Quattro’s permanent all-wheel-drive technology was an international racing sensation that eventually made its way into the full lineup of Audi vehicles.
Audi NSU Auto Union AG changed its name to AUDI AG in January 1985. The business also relocated its headquarters from Ingolstadt at the same time. From that point on, both the firm and the cars shared the same name.
What was Audi’s first automobile?
Audi AG, a well-known automobile and motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Zwickau, Germany, was established on July 16, 1909. Along with Mercedes Benz and BMW, Audi is one of the three luxury automakers that collectively make up the so-called “German Big 3,” the largest producers of luxury vehicles worldwide. Since 1966, Audi has been a majority-owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen family, with the Volkswagen Group of Germany owning 99.55 percent of its shares. Today, the corporation operates in over 100 countries, or 110 to be exact, from its spectacular headquarters in the city of Ingolstadt in the German state of Bavaria.
The beginnings of this illustrious auto-clan can be traced back to November 14, 1899, when its founder, August Horch, founded his first automobile company, A. Horch & Cie. Motorwagen Werke, in the Cologne neighborhood where he manufactured his first automobile in 1901. Horch had to leave his Mayden business venture due to a disagreement with the company’s supervisory board, and in 1909 he started a new vehicle manufacturing called Horch Automobil-Werke GmbH. However, the same misfortune befell Horch in this new endeavor as well, and soon he found himself parting ways with a business that he had founded on his own. Not one to give up easily, August Horch opened a second “Horch” vehicle plant in Zwickau in 1909; however, he eventually changed the name to “Audi” because to concerns about trademark infringement with some of his old business partners. The world saw the introduction of the first Audi vehicle, the Type B, early the next year, and the carmaker never had to look back after that.
Audi vehicles first appeared in India in 2004. But it wasn’t until March 2007 that the Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt. Ltd. created Audi India as a full-fledged Indian division of the German automaker. The organization, which has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, has established a sizable dealership network in India, with up to 25 locations scattered throughout more than 11 states and 2 union territories. Regarding production facilities, Audi has a total of 7 of them spread throughout 6 different nations. For local assembly of its A4, A6, Q5, and Q7 models, it uses facilities created by Skoda Auto India Private Limited in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
What does the word “Audi” mean?
Logo? Of course! When the Auto Union AG was established about 90 years ago, that was also their first thought. How four businesses eventually evolved into four rings and the world-renowned AUDI AG. And here’s why the process of sand painting is so crucial to the creation of logos:
“A good logo is one that your big toe can carve into the sand. Kurt Weidemann, a well-known type designer and graphic artist, said as much (19222011). Based on his statements, the designers’ directions could have been straightforward and basic yet nonetheless clever and memorable nearly 90 years ago. In 1932, the four businesses Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer merged to establish Auto Union AG, which later changed its name to AUDI AG. The business also need a new logo. The creation of the four interlocking rings.
Who created the BMW?
Karl Rapp and Gustav Otto are the founders of BMW. At the government’s request, the Flugmaschinenfabrik Gustav Otto firm amalgamated into Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke AG (BFW) in 1916. The Rapp Motorenwerke company changed its name to Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH in 1917, and that corporation was then transformed into an AG (public limited company) in 1918. In 1922, BMW AG handed its engine construction operations, together with the business and brand identities, to BFW. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG was established on March 7, 1916, which will forever be known as the founding day of BFW.
The BMW insignia, which integrates the colors of the Bavarian state, has been proudly featured on each of the company’s products since 1917. The company’s advertising at the end of the 1920s included the logo for the first time as a whirling propeller, which has subsequently seen numerous interpretations.
Following the ban on the production of aero-engines, railway brakes and inboard engines were produced after the war. The banker Camillo Castiglioni purchased engine production together with the personnel and production facilities, the firm name, and the blue and white emblem after the company was sold to Knorr Bremse AG in 1920. After that, he forwarded everything to “Bayerische Flugzeuge-Werke AG” (BFW). The business moved the same year to BFW’s production facilities at Munich’s Oberwiesenfeld airport. The BMW Group’s primary facility and corporate offices are still located here.
In 1923, the R 32, BMW’s first motorcycle, was introduced to considerable fanfare. Up until that point, the business had only provided engines, not entire automobiles. In the company’s bikes today, the basic design of the original BMW Motorrad modela boxer engine with longitudinally positioned cylinders and shaft drive is still used.
In 1928, BMW acquired the business formerly known as Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, becoming an automaker. All BMW automobiles were produced in this facility in Germany’s Thuringia region up until the outbreak of World War II. The Austin Motor Company granted BMW permission to manufacture the company’s first little car in 1929. However, in 1932, the company’s own designs took its place.
BMW underwent a transition throughout the National Socialist era, going from a mobility company to an arms manufacturer, and eventually becoming one of the most significant businesses involved in the German war economy. The manufacturing of cars and motorcycles was still going on, but the majority of the company’s sales came from the aero-engine business. To accommodate the need for armaments, new locations were created and manufacturing was dramatically increased.
What was the first auto manufacturer?
On May 8th, 1879, George B. Selden of America submitted a patent application. His use of the engine extended to its integration into a four-wheeled vehicle. The legal procedure was drawn out by Selden’s several modifications to his application, causing a 16-year delay before the patent was finally issued on 5 November 1895. [32] Most significant American automakers received licenses from Selden for his invention in exchange for a fee on each vehicle they made, and the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers was established. Ford Motor Company challenged this patent in court and ultimately prevailed on appeal. According to Henry Ford’s testimony, the patent did more to impede than to promote the development of automobiles in the US. [33]
In 1888, Karl Benz produced the first vehicles in Germany, while Emile Roger produced them in France with Benz’s permission. There were countless others, including Lon Bolle, Edward Butler, and tricycle manufacturers Rudolf Egg. [11]: 2023 In the 1897 Paris-Tourville rally, Bolle’s driver, Jamin, was able to average 45 km/h (28 mph) thanks to a 650 cc (40 cu in) engine of his own design. [11]: 23 Automobile mass manufacture had started in France and the US by 1900.
French business Panhard et Levassor, which also developed the first four-cylinder engine, was the first to be established specifically to manufacture automobiles.
[11]: 22 Panhard was established in 1889, and Peugeot followed two years later. Western Europe had a boom in the automotive industry during the start of the 20th century, particularly in France, where 30,204 automobiles were made in 1903, accounting for 48.8% of all automobiles produced globally. [34]
Local mechanics around the northern US tested a wide range of prototypes. Jesse O. Wells, for instance, was operating a steam-powered Locomobile in Iowa by 1890. Electric cars powered by storage batteries have been the subject of numerous trials. Early gasoline-powered vehicles including Haynes, Mason, and Duesenberg cars were ordered by first users. Beginning with the opening of repair and petrol stations, blacksmiths and mechanics. [35] The Duryea Motor Wagon Company, established in 1893 in Springfield, Massachusetts by brothers Charles and Frank Duryea, was the nation’s first automotive manufacturing enterprise. The Autocar Company, which was formed in 1897 and is still in business today[36], is the country’s oldest continuously functioning automaker. But with the release of the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, Ransom E. Olds and his Olds Motor Vehicle Company (later known as Oldsmobile) would come to rule this era. In 1901, it had a functioning production line. The second mass-produced car in history was created by the Thomas B. Jeffery Company, and in its first year, 1,500 Ramblers were produced and sold, accounting for one-sixth of all cars on the road in the US. [37] Ford, Winton, and Cadillacall of which were derived from the Henry Ford Companystarted building tens of thousands of automobiles within a year. After dominating the market for horse-drawn vehicles in South Bend, Indiana, the Studebaker brothers switched to electric cars in 1902 then gasoline engines in 1904. Up until 1919, they kept producing horse-drawn automobiles. [38]
The Austro-Hungarian business Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau, subsequently known as Tatra in modern-day Czech Republic, manufactured the first automobile in Central Europe, the President, in 1897.
[39]
[failed to verify] Louis Renault modified a De Dion-Bouton with a fixed drive shaft and differential in 1898, creating “perhaps the first hot rod in history” and launching him and his brothers into the automobile business. [40] There were no defined standards for fundamental vehicle architectures, body designs, construction materials, or controls, thus innovation was quick and widespread. For instance, many older cars employ a tiller rather than a wheel for steering. Rambler standardized the steering wheel in 1903[41] and shifted the driver’s seat to the left side of the car. [42] Drive shaft was mostly superseded by chain drive, and closed bodies were incredibly uncommon. Renault introduced drum brakes in 1902. [43]: 62 The first four-wheel drive racing vehicle was created the following year by Dutch designer Jacobus Spijker; however, it was never entered into competition, and it wasn’t until 1965 with the Jensen FF that four-wheel drive was implemented in a production vehicle. [44]: 78
Within a few years, hundreds of producers throughout the western globe were utilizing a bewildering array of technology. Automobiles powered by steam, electricity, gasoline, and internal combustion engines all battled it out for decades before gasoline/internal combustion engines took control by the 1910s. Design work included dual- and even quad-engine automobiles with more than 12 l of engine displacement (3.2 US gal). At this time, several contemporary innovations were tried and abandoned, including four-wheel drive, overhead camshafts, multi-valve engines, and gas/electric hybrids.
Not just the cars themselves were innovative. The development of technology to create gasoline (replacing kerosene and coal oil), as well as advancements in heat-tolerant mineral oil lubricants, all contributed to the expansion of the petroleum industry[43]: 6061. (replacing vegetable and animal oils). [43]: 60
There were also societal repercussions. William Jennings Bryan became the first presidential candidate to campaign in an automobile (a donated Mueller) at Decatur, Illinois, in 1896. Music would be written about cars, including the classic “In My Merry Oldsmobile” (a tradition that still exists today). [45]: 92 Three years later, Jacob German would establish a custom for cab drivers in New York City when he drove “recklessly” 19 km/h down Lexington Avenue (12 mph). [45]: 92 Akron, Ohio, adopted the first self-propelled paddy cart the same year. [45]: 92
By 1900, the early hubs of national automotive industry had emerged in a number of nations, including Belgium (home to Vincke, which imitated Benz, Germain, a phony Panhard, and Linon and Nagant, both based on the Gobron-Brilli),[11]: 25 Switzerland (led by Fritz Henriod, Rudolf Egg, Saurer, Johann Weber, and Lorenz Popp),[11]: 25 Vagnfabrik
[11]: 2526], Irgens (which began in Bergen, Norway, in 1883, but failed to take off), Italy (where FIAT was founded in 1899), and even as far away as Australia (where Pioneer set up shop in 1898, with an already archaic paraffin-fueled center-pivot-steered wagon).
[11] Koch began exporting vehicles and trucks from Paris to Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, and the Dutch East Indies at the same time that the export trade had started. [11]: 25 Automobiles were also transported to British territories; the first one went to India in 1897, for instance.
Any man can drive a steam car, and any woman can drive an electric car, but neither can operate a gasoline car, which has its own odor and moves in whichever way it pleases.