Contents: Recent / Early Days (Pre-1940s) / Post 1940s Models / S & RS Models / The R8 / The Quattro / Concept Cars / Race Cars

Audi Model List. Every Audi, Every Year.

Audi has a colorful history from its origins in Germany where car production began on a small scale, true to founder August Horch's basic principle of building only "good, strong cars". By 1921, Audi had become the first manufacturer in Germany to introduce left-hand drive and central gear change as standard. The pressure on German car manufacturers had already been growing since the mid-1920s and the result was the creation of the Auto Union (Audi, DKW and Horch and the automotive department of Wanderer Werke merged).

Since then Audi has continued its role as an innovator and maker of some of the most unique and amazing cars on the planet. Most readers will remember Audi from a more recent era, in particular its growth since the 1970s. The 1970s was a period of expansion and consolidation for Audi and it led to a big push to update and renew its models. In the early 1970s, the Audi 60/72/80/Super 90 range of small saloons was replaced by the all-new Audi 80 and that really added fuel to Audi's sales growth. The next big milestone in terms of Audi models was the Audi quattro, the first production car with permanent all-wheel drive.

1982 also gave us the third generation of the Audi 100 which went down in the annals of technology history as the world's most aerodynamic production sedan, with a drag coefficient of 0.30. In 1989, with the 2.5-liter, five-cylinder TDI, Audi introduces the direct-injection turbocharged diesel engine. Since then we have seen Audi create cars we lust over, models like the Audi R8 that came out of nowhere to wow supercar fans everywhere. More recently, Audi has also demonstrated strong capabilities in the EV sector with models like the Audi e-tron and RS e-tron GT performance EVs. Below, we take a look at all the Audi models over the years. 

New Audi Models On Sale Today

This page is focused on the full Audi lineup from across the entire brand's history, but below we have outlined a quick view of the Audi cars you can walk into a US dealership to buy today. We have covered these in-depth in our current Audi lineup guide, so definitely check that out if you are in the market for Audi.

Early Historical Audi Models (1910 to 1940)

August Horch established a company known as Horch & Cie. Motorwagen Werke in Cologne. In 1909, August Horch left the company and then established a second automobile manufacturing operation and because he couldn't use his own name, instead chose a Latin translation instead: the German word "Horch!", which became "Audi". Car production began on a small scale and within a few years later Audi had already developed into one of the best-known German automobile brands.

It enjoyed success in competition from the very start with wins in the Austrian Alpine Rallies in 1912, 1913 and 1914. Models from the era include the Audi Type A and the the Type C which was an open tourer with a 35-horsepower engine and a top speed of 80 km/h. Audi recorded a number of technical milestones in 1923 with the Audi Type M, in its day one of Germany's most luxurious and expensive cars. The engine had a light-alloy block and an overhead camshaft driven by a vertical shaft and bevel gears. An intake air cleaner was fitted. This Audi model was the first to have four-wheel brakes. The Audi Type M was followed by the first Audi eight-cylinder model, the Audi Type R "Imperator", which broke through the symbolic hundred-horsepower barrier. In 1931 Audi began to build the Type P, the first small car in the brand's history.

The four rings of the Audi badge symbolize the merger four car companies brands. Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer, which were combined to form Auto Union in 1932. The idea was to allocate a specific market segment to each of the individual brands in order to create a coordinated model range. Specifically for the Audi brand, this prompted the development of the Audi Front Type UW, a midsize car through which the new group was for the first time able to make use of synergy benefits.

At the outbreak of war, Germany's second-largest automobile manufacturer had to cease production of passenger cars for the general public.

Important Audi Models (1940 to Present)

In 1945, after the war had ended, a depot for Auto Union parts was set up in Ingolstadt. These tentative efforts to relaunch operations led to the founding of a new company named Auto Union GmbH on September 3, 1949, with the purpose of upholding the automotive tradition of the four rings. The first products with the four-ring badge built in this era were well-established DKW models with two-stroke engines. These basic but robust and reliable cars and motorcycles were just right for the austere circumstances of the post-war years.

In 1958, Auto Union GmbH was acquired by Daimler-Benz AG and soon thereafter in 1959 a new manufacturing plant goes into operation in Ingolstadt for the production of the DKW Junior small car. In autumn 1965 the Ingolstadt car company, still called Auto Union GmbH in those days, introduced a new model with a four-stroke engine for the first time after the war at the Frankfurt Motor Show. This new car needed a new name, and thus the name "Audi" came into being.

The Audi 72 played an important role in the brand's history as it was the Auto Union's first post-war car with a four-stroke engine and ushered in a new era for the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer. In 1966 the Audi 80 and the Audi Super 90 appeared in the same guise. Two years later the Audi 60 and Audi 75 models were included in the range. The new Audi 100 was officially introduced in 1968. In 1969 Volkswagenwerk AG engineered the merger of Auto Union GmbH and the Neckarsulm-based NSU Motorenwerke AG, which was renamed AUDI AG on 1st of January 1985. 1974 saw the appointment of Ferdinand Piëch and the "Piëch era" transformed Audi into a highly innovative car manufacturer.

This period also witnessed the gradual raising of the Audi brand's positioning. The five-cylinder engine (1976), turbocharger technology (1979) and quattro four-wheel drive (1980) are eloquent testimonies to the success of this drive. In 1994 Audi took a quantum leap in automotive engineering with the market launch of the Audi A8 with its revolutionary aluminum Audi Space Frame (ASF).

Audi S & RS Sports Car Models

Since the early 1990s, Audi has been producing some pretty amazing sports-oriented cars. The formula is pretty simple. Take a regular Audi and pump-up the performance and then sell them as factory products. Audi Sport, which is now known as Quattro GmbH add this magic to most Audi models these days, but in the early 1990s it was a different story, with only a handful of cars getting this treatment. The RS cars clearly get more performance than the regular S models in terms of the pecking order.

This is what being a performance car means in the world of Audi and below we have a full list of all the S and RS models over the years. The history of the RS lineup started in the ‘80s after Audi won numerous rally championships with the iconic Audi Quattro, which boasted one of the first truly competent all-wheel drive systems in production cars. The quattro drivetrain was so influential that Audi chose to install it in all of its top of the line models.

The first proper RS model was introduced in 1994, and it was in a league of its own, displaying outstanding performance unrivaled in the market. Called the RS2, with RS standing for RennSport, it was a station wagon version of Audi 80, which looked like any other wagon on the road in the early ‘90s. However, beneath that unassuming exterior beat the heart of a true performance car, powered by a 2.2-liter turbocharged five-cylinder engine with 315 HP. With a six-speed manual transmission, the RS2 was brutally fast and achieved 0 to 60 MPH in just 4.8 seconds, thanks to quattro all-wheel drive.

Audi R8 Models

The Audi R8, based on the Audi Le Mans quattro concept car (designed by Frank Lamberty and Julian Hoenig) first appeared at the 2003 International Geneva Motor Show and the 2003 Frankfurt International Motor Show. By the time the car was introduced at the 2006 Paris Auto Show it was already guaranteed to be a sales success. What surprised most of the world was the fact that Audi actually created an amazing supercar in every respect. Highlights include a lightweight aluminum space frame, Quattro four-wheel drive and a 420 bhp V8 and a chassis that was sublime to drive. It was a civilized, easy to drive, bloody quick supercar that was a home run from the Audi team. Since then the Audi R8 has continued to develop additional variants and several generations.

Audi R8 Generations

• Audi R8 42 (2007 - 2015)

• Audi R8 GT (2010 - 2013)

• Audi R8 4S (2015 - )

Audi Quattro

In 1980, the Audi Quattro came along and it was the first production car with permanent all-wheel drive. The quattro all-wheel-drive system defines Audi in many ways and remains its unfair advantage on the road and racetrack. In motorsports, quattro propelled Audi to numerous World Rally Championships in the 1980s. It catapulted Audi’s success in IMSA and Trans-Am racing in the ‘80s and 1990s. And, it was a driving force behind the R18 e-tron quattro’s success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The idea of quattro stemmed from the desire to mass-produce cars with traction to all four wheels, with Audi engineers first developing a lightweight all-wheel-drive system based on the fundamental traits demonstrated by the Volkswagen Iltis off-roader in the 1970s. The technology was then brought under the Audi banner in 1980 with the first production quattro all-wheel-drive systems. The original Quattro's all-wheel-drive system revolutionized the performance car and it deserves its own spot on this page as the Audi model we love.

Audi Concept Car List

Sexy, beautiful, stunning and most certainly futuristic. Audi is not afraid to let aesthetics and soul take over in their designs. They’re really passionate about making a statement about what they see as the future of the automobile. They also signal very strongly where they will invest. Just look at the various prototypes that they have produced over the years and you get a real sense for why this automotive company is considered by many as one of the best design forward companies around. Sit back and enjoy all the Audi concept cars.

Audi Race Car List

Audi's racing history start back in the days of the Auto Union. To raise its public profile, in 1934 the company decided to get involved in motor racing at the very highest level – Grand Prix – and over the next few years saw its Auto Union "Silver Arrow" models clinch countless races, championships and world records on racetracks around the world. Since then, Audi has been involved in all forms of motorsports, and has dominated over the years. It totally upended the rally world with the all-wheel drive machines it created and then latter on did the same thing in Le Mans Prototypes, dominating for almost a decade. Below is a list of Audi's well known race models.