Vorsprung durch Technik is back! future Audis to have hi-tech ethos at their core
Audi is looking to recreate the Vorsprung Durch Technik era when it let the car world on tech and quality
There’s a revolution going on at Audi. “The fundamental transformation of this company has started,” said CEO Gernot Döllner addressing the company’s annual media conference.
Breaking from German tradition, Audi has a new French R&D boss with a background in software, a new Italian design chief and a mission to refresh the product portfolio in two years. But there’s one historic pillar on which the revolutionaries are doubling down – Audi’s Vorsprung Durch Technik slogan.
Translated as ‘progress through technology’, car fans of a certain age will remember this was an advertising slogan popularised by British advertising guru Sir John Hegarty. Its high point – literally – came when Harald Demuth drove an Audi 100 CS up the Kaipola ski jump in Finland to demonstrate the sticking power of quattro four-wheel drive.
It’s a slogan so perfect – just like BMW’s ‘the ultimate driving machine’ tagline – that it should be as undroppable as England footballer Jude Bellingham. Those omnipotent three words are plastered across the glass and steel buildings staring down Audi’s museum in hometown Ingolstadt near Munich.
A powerful substance to build on
Former marketing chief Henrik Wenders subverted it into Future Is An Attitude but the accompanying ‘Sphere’ concepts seemed nebulous and fashion designer Stella McCartney cruising around in an e-Tron GT just didn’t have the same potent call to arms.
“Vorsprung durch Technik is a very powerful substance to build on,” Döllner says, firing off a list of VDT moments that inspire him. “Quattro which brought all-wheel drive to the automotive world and to rally sports, the second Audi A8 with its impressive aluminum space frame technology.”
Given the bloating effect of battery technology, high volume extruded aluminium is “the basis of future electric vehicles” he reckons. He also namechecks Audi’s aluminium armadillo the A2 – ”ahead of its time: electric-ready, aerodynamic, lightweight” – so much so it rocked when you turned on the windscreen wipers. A great car but one too plain and functional to trigger desirability and sales.
Back to bulletproof Audi interior quality
Döllner also reminisces about Audi’s once leading-edge interior quality and design leadership with the Audi TT, which is on the verge of a comeback.
The greatest slogans have longevity and the beauty of Vorsprung Durch Technik is it forever drives Audi forwards. So next-generation VDT will focus on making Audi electric cars hyper-efficient, far beyond the Q8 e-tron’s risible 2.2 miles per kWh.
There’s a joint venture with Rivian to create a cutting edge electronic nervous system to enable lightning fast processing for driver assistance breakthroughs, a dazzling, customisable user interface and frequent Over-The-Air updates to pipe in new features. That’ll be in cars by 2027.
“We will take further steps in software, in design, in quality, to bring the brand back to where it belongs,” says the boss. Talk is cheap, Gernot. But delivery on that promise will wipe clean last year’s disappointing financial results and propel Audi back to the future.
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