Audi

Audi AG, more commonly known as Audi, is a premium German automobile manufacturer and one of the world's leading performance-luxury marques, with headquarters in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. It has been an almost wholly-owned (99. more...

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7%) subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1964, and is held in ownership by its shareholders - hence the term "Aktiengesellschaft" or "AG". The company evolved from VW's takeover of both Auto Union, and NSU, the former having incorporated the historic Audi company which was founded in 1910.

Audi's corporate tagline is Vorsprung durch Technik, meaning "Advantage through Technology" or "Leading by (superior) technology". This German-language tagline is also used in other European countries, including the UK, and in other markets, such as Latin America, Oceania and parts of Asia including Japan. The American and Canadian tagline is "Truth in Engineering".

The origins of Audi

The company traces its origins back to 1899 and August Horch. The first Horch automobile was produced in 1901 in Zwickau. In 1909, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded. He then started a new company in Zwickau and continued using the Horch brand. His former partners sued him for trademark infringement and a German court determined that the Horch brand belonged to his former company. August Horch was forced to refrain from using his own family name in his new car business. Horch immediately called a meeting at the apartment of Franz Fikentscher to come up with a new name for his company. During this meeting Franz's son was quietly studying Latin in a corner of the room. Several times he looked like he was on the verge of saying something but would just swallow his words and continue working, until he finally blurted out, "Father - audiatur et altera pars... wouldn't it be a good idea to call it audi instead of horch?". "Horch!" in German means "Hark!" or "listen", which is "Audi" in Latin. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by everyone attending the meeting. It is also popularly (but incorrectly) believed that Audi is an acronym which stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt".

Audi started with a 2,612 cc (2.6 liter) four cylinder model followed by a 3564 cc (3.6 L) model, as well as 4680 cc (4.7 L) and 5720 cc (5.7L) models. These cars were successful even in sporting events. August Horch left the Audi company in 1920. The first six cylinder model, 4655 cc (4.7 L) appeared in 1924. In 1928, the company was acquired by Jørgen Rasmussen, owner of DKW. In the same year, Rasmussen bought the remains of the US automobile manufacturer, Rickenbacker, including the manufacturing equipment for eight cylinder engines. These engines were used in Audi Zwickau and Audi Dresden models that were launched in 1929. At the same time, six cylinder and four cylinder (licensed from Peugeot) models were manufactured. Audi cars of that era were luxurious cars equipped with special bodywork.

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