Audi at 100: A timeline of significant events

1885--Establishment of Wanderer, which ultimately will be a branch of Audi AG.

1888--NSU, a branch that will evolve into Audi AG, makes its first contribution to automobile development by supplying a chassis for the first Daimler four-wheeler.

1899--August Horch sets up his own company, A. Horch & Cie.

1901--First year that NSU motorcycles are built.

1902--The first 1.5-hp motorcycles are produced under Wanderer.

1906--NSU introduces its first independently built cars.

1909--After leaving the company named after him, August Horch creates “August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH” but is forced to rename the rival company. He chooses a Latin translation of Horch, which means “listen,” and the Audi name was born.

1913--Series production of the Wanderer “Puppchen” starts. Puppchen (“Poppet”) had a four-cylinder, 1.5-liter engine.

1916--DKW is named; it did mostly military production work.

1916--Audi's factory is devoted to grenades and light mine-throwers. A crawler-tracked vehicle is developed for the German army.

1917--Horch, in conjunction with military experts, develops an armored car.

1925--Germany's first continuous assembly line for motorcycles is put into operation under Wanderer.

1926--The first Wanderer car with left-hand drive and four-wheel brakes appears. Horch introduces the first eight-cylinder engine to be manufactured on a production scale in Germany this year as well.

1927--NSU becomes the first German motorcycle manufacturer to introduce conveyor-belt assembly methods.

1928--Six-cylinder touring cars are introduced. These are to be the last NSU cars for a long time.

1929--The world economic crisis obliges NSU to cease automobile production. Plant and equipment were sold to Fiat. A joint sales company managed by NSU was set up with Wanderer.

1932--Auto Union AG is formed from Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer. NSU regains its independence by severing its links with the Fiat group, but Fiat retains the rights to the NSU marquee. NSU focused on motorcycle sales.

1936--NSU takes over bicycle production from Adam Opel AG to become the leading German manufacturer of two-wheelers.

1939--NSU outfits the military with aircraft engines, submarine parts, vehicle parts for mountain guns and other military hardware.

1939--Production of civilian vehicles is restricted at the start of World War II.

1945--NSU's plant is occupied by the American army. Air-raid and heavy artillery fire destroy large parts of the plant. Operations restart on a minor scale midway through 1945. A central depot for Auto Union spare parts is established, which marks the company's reconstruction.

1956--Auto Union is now named Auto Union GmbH, and launches the MUNGA jeep (multipurpose universal off-road vehicle with all-wheel drive.)

1958--Daimler-Benz AG takes over 88 percent of Auto Union GmbH shares.

1957--The Auto Union GmbH is the first German car manufacturer to fit its cars with the “Saxomat” automatic clutch. The clutch consists of the centrifugal and servo clutch and the two systems disengage each other based on rpms.

1959--The DKW “Junior” goes into series production.

1965-- The 73-hp Audi with four-stroke engine developed from the DKW F 102 marks the end of the two-stroke era.

1968--The Audi 60, with a 1.5-liter engine and 55 hp, brings the company success.

1969--Audi NSU is formed after NSU merges with the company; the company's majority shareholder is Volkswagen AG. Meanwhile, Auto Union introduces special shifts to increase productivity to meet the demands of consumers.

1970--From the start of the year, Audi Super 90 and the two-door Audi 100 are available on the North American market.

1974--The Audi 50 makes its debut on the market.

1977--The Audi 100 Avant is a new arrival on the market.

1980--Audi presents the Audi quattro with permanent four-wheel drive.

1982--The Audi 100 is a world record-breaker because of the 0.30 drag coefficient.

1983--Audi becomes the first German manufacturer to receive a general operating permit for cars with catalytic-converter technology, which reduces the toxicity of emissions from an internal combustion engine.

1985--Audi NSU Auto Union AG is renamed Audi AG. Also, Audi becomes the first to introduce the fully galvanized body.

1986--The Audi 80 is awarded the “Golden Steering Wheel” and the “Grand Austrian Automobile Prize.”

1989--Audi adds the Audi V8 Lang, the Audi 200 quattro 20V and the Audi 200 Avant quattro 20V models to its luxury class. The Audi 100 2.5 TDI completes 2,991.5 miles on a single tank of fuel during an economy record run. It earned a new fuel-consumption record of 1.76 liters per 100 kilometers and made it into the Guinness Book of Records.

1991--The Audi 11 is followed by the Audi Cabriolet, the Audi S4, the Audi 100 Avant and the Audi 80. Procon-ten and side protection become standard equipment on all Audi vehicles.

1994--The Audi A8 was introduced using Audi spaceframe technology. The all-aluminum car was introduced to reduce the weight that was offset by the Quattro four-wheel-drive system. In the end, it had performance similar to its rivals', but superior road holding.

2004--Audi becomes the first manufacturer to feature peripheral white LEDs as daytime running lights on the Audi A8 W12.

2006--Audi introduces the first 12-cylinder diesel engine in a series passenger car with the Audi Q7.

2007--Audi premieres the first headlight unit in the world to deploy LEDs for all of the front lighting functions. This includes daytime running lights, turn signals and the dipped-beam and main-beam headlights. Each headlight unit had a total of 54 LED light sources.

2008--A seven-speed S tronic is introduced, a high-tech transmission with twin-clutch technology.

2009--The start-stop system is introduced in the second quarter of the year. The system shuts down the engine once the car has come to a stop, the gear lever stands at idle and the driver releases the clutch pedal. Operating the clutch then starts the engine again. Along the same fuel-efficient theme, Audi offers the on-board computer efficiency program, which makes fuel-efficient recommendations to the driver.

Compiled by Angie Favot

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