New Audi R8 makes its world public début at the 2006 Mondial de l'Automobile in Paris (September 30th to October 15th). The new R8 will be built at the Audi facility in Neckarsulm, Germany - the centre of Audi aluminium construction expertise, and also the home of the brand's quattro GmbH high performance subsidiary. A total of 15 cars will be built per day, each element of the production process being controlled and subjected to intense scrutiny by small teams of specialists. 
The company traces its origins back to 1899 and August Horch . The first Horch automobile was produced in 1901 in Zwickau , in former East Germany. In 1910 , Horch was forced out of the company he had founded. He then started a new company in Zwickau and continued using the Horch brand. His former partners sued him for trademark infringement and a German court determined that the Horch brand belonged to his former company. August Horch was forced to refrain from using his own family name in his new car business. As the word "horch!" translates to "listen!" in Old German , August Horch settled on the Latin equivalent of his name - "audi!". It is also popularly believed that Audi is an acronym which stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt ". Audi produces over 2 million vehicles annually at its main production site in Ingolstadt . Audi has another production plant in Neckarsulm.
The Auto Union era
In 1932 Audi merged with Horch , DKW and Wanderer to form the Auto Union . Before World War II , Auto Union used the four interlinked rings that make up the Audi badge today, representing these four brands. This badge was used, however, only on Auto Union racing cars in that period while the member companies used their own names and emblems. The technological development became more and more concentrated and some Audi models were propelled by Horch or Wanderer built engines.
The modern era of Audi
The first Audi of the modern era was the Audi 100 of 1968. This was soon joined by a derivative of the Volkswagen Passat , the Audi 80 in 1972. The image of Audi cars was perceived as conservative, so a proposal was accepted from their chassis engineer Jorg Bensinger to develop the four-wheel drive technology in Volkswagen 's Iltis military vehicle for an Audi performance car and for a rally car.
60 Minutes ignored this fact and rigged a car to perform in an uncontrolled manner. The report immediately crushed Audi sales, and Audi renamed the affected model (The 5000 became the 100/200 in 1989, as in Germany and elsewhere). Audi had contemplated withdrawing from the American market until sales began to recover in the mid-1990s. The turning point for Audi was the sale of the new A4 in 1996, and with the release of the A4/6/8 series, which was developed together with VW and other sister brands (so called "platforms"), Audi has regained what was lost due to biased journalism. Currently, Audi's sales are growing strongly in Europe, and the company is renowned for having the best build quality of any mainstream auto manufacturer. 2004 marked the 11th straight increase in sales, selling 779,441 vehicles worldwide. Record figures were recorded from 21 out of about 50 major sales markets. The largest sales increases came from Eastern Europe (+19.3%), Africa (+17.2%) and the Middle East (+58.5%). In March of 2005, Audi is building its first two dealerships in India following its high increase in sales in that region. Though its brand still doesn't have the global cachet of Mercedes-Benz or BMW , Audi's reputation for quality and understated style has once again made it a highly desirable marque.