Press releases in detail

Feb 26, 2008

The Audi Group not only achieved its best annual sales figures in 2007 for the 12th time in a row. It also accomplished yet another production record, with 980,880 cars built in total (including Lamborghini), up 5.9 percent compared to last year’s result.

In 2006, a total of 926,180 cars rolled off the Audi assembly lines. Particularly pleasing from a German perspective: in 2007, 807,494 Audi models were assembled at local production sites in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm (+4.6 percent). This amounts to more than 82 percent of total production. “Never before in the history of the company have so many vehicles been produced at these two sites,” commented Frank Dreves, Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG for Production. “This is proof of the competitiveness of our German plants.”

The main Audi plant in Ingolstadt contributed more than half a million automobiles – 528,310 to be precise – from the model lines Audi A3, Audi A4 and Audi A5 models towards this new record. The Neckarsulm site in Baden-Württemberg produced 279,184 cars from the model lines Audi A4, Audi A6, Audi A8, Audi A6 allroad quattro, Audi RS 4 and Audi R8. In comparison, around 800,000 Audi models were produced in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm in 2006.

Dreves views increasing productivity as crucial to maintaining the competitiveness of automobile production in Germany. Audi increases productivity by eight to ten percent each year.

One prime example of heightened efficiency is the reduction of the amount of walking required on Audi’s production lines over the past year. By optimizing processes, production experts were able to reduce the amount of walking required in assembling the Audi A3 Sportback by a total of 102 meters per car. That saved all employees assembling the A3 Sportback more than 22,000 kilometers of walking during 2007. For the Audi A4, the amount of walking was reduced by more than 45,000 kilometers. This last distance alone is the equivalent of traveling all around the entire Earth – and then continuing for approximately an extra 5,000 kilometers.

“Heightening productivity by such measures is essential to ensuring a safer workplace,” Dreves said. “Germany’s highly skilled workforce helps us to achieve the required advances in productivity. These accomplishments underlie our decision to base production of both the Audi A5 and the Audi Q5 in Ingolstadt and to produce the Audi R8 supercar in Neckarsulm.” The new Audi A4 is now for the first time being , build at both the German sites. Dreves believes that there is virtually no better way of demonstrating commitment to Germany as a production location.

“We have a highly motivated and highly skilled team, and we feel we are in a very good position here. We build technically innovative cars with emotion-packed designs and unsurpassed quality standards,” Dreves added. “And we do so with one of the most flexible and efficient production systems in the industry.”

The production site for AUDI HUNGARIA MOTOR Kft. in Györ also achieved a new production record in 2007. The company produced a total of 1,913,053 engines. This represents an increase of 1 percent compared to 2006 (1,893,600) – with a total of almost 7,000 engines built per day in 2007 at Audi Hungaria.

Vehicle production in Györ increased enormously. A total of 56,982 (23,683) cars was produced at the Audi site in Hungary, including 56,766 Audi TT Coupé and TT Roadster models, as well as 216 units of the Audi A3 Cabriolet: an overall increase of 140.6 percent from the previous year.

More than 12,000 Audi A3 Sportback models rolled from the assembly lines during 2007 in the new Audi plant in Brussels; in Bratislava, more than 77,000 Audi Q7 vehicles were produced. The Audi subsidiary Lamborghini produced a total of 2,580 Lamborghini Gallardo (Coupé and Spyder) and Lamborghini Murciélago (Coupé and Roadster) sports cars.me in the Board of Management, AUDI AG has experienced strong and profitable sales growth. Weyler took decisive steps to advance the exclusivity of our worldwide dealer network”, commented Rupert Stadler, the Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG.

Peter Schwarzenbauer will be the new Board Member for Marketing and Sales at AUDI AG as of 1 April, 2008. He is currently the President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America Inc. He became the head of this most important Porsche subsidiary at the beginning of 2003.  “Peter Schwarzenbauer is well-known for his sales expertise and in particular has an excellent understanding of the North American market. We want to grow strongly there in the coming years”, said Rupert Stadler concerning this appointment.

Schwarzenbauer was born on 19 October, 1959 in the Bavarian town of Weissenburg. He went to school in Munich and in Nova Friburgo (Brasil). After successfully completing his business management studies in Munich, he began his career at BMW. In 1994 he moved to Porsche AG to be Head of Sales for Germany. Two years later he became Head of Marketing. In 1997, Schwarzenbauer became Managing Director of Porsche Ibérica S.A. in Madrid.  At the beginning of 2003 he took on the leadership role at Porsche Cars North America. Schwarzenbauer is married and has a son.