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Audi is a luxury vehicle manufacturer based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities across the world as a subsidiary of its parent business, the Volkswagen Group.
The name of the company is derived from the Latin translation of the founder's surname, August Horch. Horch, which in German means "listen," becomes audi in Latin. Each of the four rings in the Audi logo represents one of the four car firms that merged to form Audi's precursor, Auto Union. The tagline of Audi is "Vorsprung durch Technik," which translates to "Being Ahead Through Technology." Audi, together with other German manufacturers BMW and Mercedes-Benz, is one of the world's best-selling luxury car brands.
The company's history is complicated, dating back to the early twentieth century and the initial firms formed by engineer August Horch, as well as two additional manufacturers (DKW and Wanderer), all of which led to the establishment of Auto Union in 1932. The contemporary history of Audi began in the 1960s, when Volkswagen purchased Auto Union from Daimler-Benz. Volkswagen merged Auto Union with NSU Motorenwerke in 1969, forming the current structure of the corporation, after relaunching the Audi brand with the release of the Audi F103 series in 1965.
