From Horch to Audi A Journey Through Automotive History#Engineering

The history of Audi is varied and filled with key events. Its tradition of cars and engines manufacturing dates back to the 19 century. Founded on July 16, 1909 in Zwickau, Germany, Audi AG is a world-renowned manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and is one of the three luxury automakers, besides Mercedes Benz and BMW, that together constitute what is known as the 'German Big 3' - a group of those three car-manufacturers from Germany that also happen to be the largest sellers of luxury cars in the whole world. With 99.55% of its shares under the ownership of the Volkswagen Group of Germany, Audi has been a majorly-owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen clan ever since 1966. Today, from its magnificent headquarters situated in the city of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, Germany, the company carries out its operations in over a 100 countries, a 110, to be precise, across the globe. The origins of this legendary auto-clan date back to November 14, 1899, the day when its founder, August Horch, established his very first car company, named as A. Horch & Cie. Motorwagen Werke, in the district of Cologne where he built his very first car in 1901. Following a difference of opinion with the company's supervisory board, Horch had to move out of his business venture and move on to establish a new car factory by the name of Horch Automobil-Werke GmbH in 1909. But the same fate followed Horch in this new venture as well, and soon he found himself, yet again, severing ties with a company that he had established himself. Not one to be discouraged so easily, August Horch, in 1909 itself set up a second 'Horch' car factory in Zwickau, which he later renamed as 'Audi' due to some trademark infringement issues with his former business allies. Early in the year after that, the world got to witness the launch of the first Audi car, the Type B, after which the automaker never had to look back.