Editing Audi (section)

===New Auto Union unit===
A new West German headquartered Auto Union was launched in Ingolstadt with loans from the Bavarian state government and [[Marshall Plan]] aid.<ref name="chronicle6">{{cite web|url=http://www.audi.com/audi/com/en2/about_audi_ag/history/chronicle/chronicle_1945_1959.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204031240/http://www.audi.com/audi/com/en2/about_audi_ag/history/chronicle/chronicle_1945_1959.html|archive-date=4 February 2009 |title=Audi Worldwide: Home |publisher=Audi |date=15 April 2009 |access-date=27 April 2009}}</ref> The reformed company was launched 3 September 1949 and continued DKW's tradition of producing front-wheel drive vehicles with two-stroke engines.<ref name="chronicle6"/> This included production of a small but sturdy 125&nbsp;cc motorcycle and a DKW delivery van, the [[DKW Schnellaster|DKW F89 L]] at Ingolstadt. The Ingolstadt site was large, consisting of an extensive complex of formerly military buildings which was suitable for administration as well as vehicle warehousing and distribution, but at this stage there was at Ingolstadt no dedicated plant suitable for mass production of automobiles: for manufacturing the company's [[DKW F89|first post-war mass-market passenger car]] plant capacity in [[Düsseldorf]] was rented from [[Rheinmetall|Rheinmetall-Borsig]]. It was only ten years later, after the company had attracted an investor, when funds became available for construction of major car plant at the Ingolstadt head office site.

In 1958, in response to pressure from [[Friedrich Flick]], then the company's largest single shareholder,<ref>[[#Oswald|Oswald]], p 263</ref> [[Daimler-Benz]] took an 87% holding in the Auto Union company, and this was increased to a 100% holding in 1959. However, small two-stroke cars were not the focus of Daimler-Benz's interests, and while the early 1960s saw major investment in new Mercedes models and in a state of the art factory for Auto Union's, the company's aging model range at this time did not benefit from the economic boom of the early 1960s to the same extent as competitor manufacturers such as [[Volkswagen]] and [[Opel]]. The decision to dispose of the Auto Union business was based on its lack of profitability.<ref name=Motor197107>{{cite journal| editor-first=Charles | editor-last=Bulmer | title = The Audi-NSU Affair| journal=Motor| page =21|date = 24 July 1971}}</ref> Ironically, by the time they sold the business, it also included a large new factory and near production-ready modern four-stroke engine, which would enable the Auto Union business, under a new owner, to embark on a period of profitable growth, now producing not Auto Unions or DKWs, but using the "Audi" name, resurrected in 1965 after a 25-year gap.

In 1964, Volkswagen acquired a 50% holding in the business, which included the new factory in Ingolstadt, the DKW and Audi brands along with the rights to the new engine design which had been funded by Daimler-Benz, who in return retained the dormant Horch trademark and the Düsseldorf factory which became a Mercedes-Benz van assembly plant. Eighteen months later, Volkswagen bought complete control of Ingolstadt, and by 1966 were using the spare capacity of the Ingolstadt plant to assemble an additional 60,000 [[Volkswagen Beetle]]s per year.<ref name=Motor19710724>{{cite journal| first=Philip |last=Turner| title = Turner's Travel [to Wolfsburg]| journal=Motor| pages = 28–30|date = 24 July 1971}}</ref> Two-stroke engines became less popular during the 1960s as customers were more attracted to the smoother four-stroke engines. In September 1965, the [[DKW F102]] was fitted with a four-stroke engine and a [[Facelift (automotive)|facelift]] for the car's front and rear. Volkswagen dumped the DKW brand because of its associations with two-stroke technology, and having classified the model internally as the [[Audi F103|F103]], sold it simply as the "Audi". Later developments of the model were named after their horsepower ratings and sold as the Audi 60, 75, 80, and Super 90, selling until 1972. Initially, Volkswagen was hostile to the idea of Auto Union as a standalone entity producing its own models having acquired the company merely to boost its own production capacity through the Ingolstadt assembly plant—to the point where Volkswagen executives ordered that the Auto Union name and flags bearing the four rings were removed from the factory buildings. Then VW chief [[Heinrich Nordhoff|Heinz Nordhoff]] explicitly forbade Auto Union from any further product development. Fearing that Volkswagen had no long-term ambition for the Audi brand, Auto Union engineers under the leadership of Ludwig Kraus developed the first [[Audi 100]] in secret, without Nordhoff's knowledge. When presented with a finished prototype, Nordhoff was so impressed he authorised the car for production, which when launched in 1968, went on to be a huge success. With this, the resurrection of the Audi brand was now complete, this being followed by the first generation [[Audi 80#B1 (1972–1978)|Audi 80]] in 1972, which would in turn provide a template for VW's new front-wheel-drive water-cooled range which debuted from the mid-1970s onward.

[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F038791-0035, Wolfsburg, VW Autowerk.jpg|thumb|[[Audi 80]] [[assembly line]] in [[Wolfsburg]], 1973]]
In 1969, Auto Union merged with [[NSU Motorenwerke AG|NSU]], based in [[Neckarsulm]], near [[Stuttgart]]. In the 1950s, NSU had been the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles, but had moved on to produce small cars like the [[NSU Prinz]], the TT and TTS versions of which are still popular as vintage race cars. NSU then focused on new rotary engines based on the ideas of [[Felix Wankel]]. In 1967, the new [[NSU Ro 80]] was a car well ahead of its time in technical details such as aerodynamics, light weight, and safety. However, teething problems with the rotary engines put an end to the independence of NSU. The Neckarsulm plant is now used to produce the larger Audi models [[Audi A6|A6]] and [[Audi A8|A8]]. The Neckarsulm factory is also home of the "[[quattro GmbH]]" (from November 2016 "[[Audi Sport GmbH]]"), a subsidiary responsible for development and production of Audi high-performance models: the [[Audi R8 (road car)|R8]] and the '''RS''' model range.