The Audi brand claim "Vorsprung durch Technik" turns 50 this year. But even half a century after its creation, the world-famous claim of the four rings has lost none of its appeal. But every year it contains a little more history. To mark this milestone anniversary, the company looks back on a multitude of innovations over five decades and shows why "Vorsprung durch Technik" is not just a brand claim at Audi, but also an expression of a forward-looking attitude.
The origins of the claim In 1969, Auto Union GmbH, based in Ingolstadt, and Neckarsulm-based NSU Motorenwerke merged to form Audi NSU Auto Union AG in Neckarsulm. The new company's model range extended from the air-cooled engines of the NSU Prinz series with rear-wheel drive to the water-cooled four-cylinder engines of the front-wheel drive Audi 60 and Audi 100 and the Wankel engine of the futuristically designed NSU Ro 80. In 1970, Hans Bauer came up with the idea of aggressively communicating technical diversity as a competitive advantage. The employee of the Audi NSU advertising department invented the brand claim that was to be memorized by people worldwide: "Vorsprung durch Technik". In January 1971, the new claim appeared for the first time in a large-format advertisement. A short time later, customers also saw it on the Audi NSU brochures: Whether Audi 100, Audi 100 Coupé S, Audi 80 or Audi 50 - they all now stood for "Vorsprung durch Technik". This was followed by variations of the slogan such as "Audi. A beautiful piece of technology" or "Audi. Drive calmly with perfect technology", but the company soon returned to the memorable original. With the introduction of the Audi quattro in 1980, the slogan appeared more and more frequently in advertising. On the A9 freeway at the Ingolstadt-Nord exit, the largest neon sign in Europe at the time was mounted on a high-rise building: the red-brown Audi oval with the words "Vorsprung durch Technik" ("Advancement through technology"). Since October 1986 at the latest, when this also appeared in the sales brochures for the Audi 80, "Vorsprung durch Technik" has been an integral part of the Audi corporate identity. And today, fifty years later, it has become indispensable.
Technology in transition
In a new special exhibition entitled "Living Progress - 50 years of Vorsprung durch Technik", Audi will be showing visitors to the Audi Forum Neckarsulm this passion for technology through the ages from December.
But which milestones have laid the foundation for the fact that "Vorsprung durch Technik" still stands for Audi's drive for innovation and that the claim still makes it into every Audi advertisement today? Oliver Hoffmann, Member of the Board of Management of Audi AG for Technical Development: "For me, the most important milestone is quattro technology. It not only established our rally successes, but also stands for the transfer of experience from racing to series production. Since then, quattro and Audi have been inseparable. Just as important was the first Audi A8 with Audi space frame technology in 1994, which finally established us as a brand in the premium segment."
The "Audi decade" at Le Mans began in the early 2000s. With new technologies such as FSI, turbo FSI, laser light, ultra technology and hybrids, the Four Rings dominated the famous endurance race in incomparable style as the series winner. In addition, the Audi A2 1.2 TDI aluminum compact car celebrated its premiere: it was the first and is still the only four-door three-liter car.
The company made the next quantum leap in 2018 with the launch of the Audi e-tron*, which, with a range of 400 kilometers, was the first fully electric car to go into series production at Audi and heralded the start of premium electric mobility. This was followed three years later by the market launch of the Audi e-tron GT*, which is also revolutionary in terms of its design and proves that e-mobility is becoming highly emotional. The new brand campaign "Future is an Attitude" underlines Audi's forward-looking attitude of constantly questioning conventional views of mobility.
At the end of the 2000s, sustainability becomes a central corporate goal. "This is why Audi is consistently committed to the environment and combines numerous measures for resource efficiency and reducing the ecological footprint in the cross-site environmental program "Mission:Zero"," says Hildegard Wortmann, Member of the Board of Management of Audi AG for Sales and Marketing. The aim is for Audi to become CO2-neutral by 2050.
