Production Record in 2007: Continuous Roll-out at Audi Sites

• 980,880 cars produced equal an increase of 5.9 percent
• German Audi plants account for 82 percent of total production
• Productivity increasing eight to ten percent each year

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.

About Audi AG
AUDI AG sold a total of 964,151 cars in 2007 and thus achieved its twelfth consecutive record year. Audi produces vehicles in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm (Germany), Györ (Hungary), Changchun (China) and Brussels (Belgium). At the end of 2007, production of the Audi A6 started in Aurangabad, India. The company is active in more than 100 markets worldwide. AUDI AG’s wholly owned subsidiaries include Lamborghini S.p.A. in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy, and quattro GmbH in Neckarsulm. Audi employs more than 54,000 people worldwide, including 45,000 in Germany. The brand with the four rings invests more than €2 billion each year in order to sustain the company’s technological lead embodied in its “Vorsprung durch Technik” slogan. Audi plans to nearly double the number of models in its portfolio by 2015, from the 25 currently on offer to 40.

AUDI AG will present the complete results for the 2007 business year at its Annual Press Conference on March 11, 2008 in Ingolstadt.