All Audi articles
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VW sets up new components division to drive efficiency
Volkswagen has established a new division – Volkswagen Group Components – tasked with reducing costs by €2 billion ($2.27 billion) while improving efficiency and taking on board the increasing importance of electric vehicles. Thomas Schmall (right), chairman of VW’s new Group Components division, with Stefan Sommer, VW Group board member ...
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Stepping up the quality
There are several advantages of shipping vehicles in kits rather than as completely built units, including lower costs for transport, better customs import conditions and the support of local government in exchange for providing employment to the workforce. A major disadvantage, however, is that defective, damaged or lost goods may ...
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Packing a punch
Electric cars could revolutionise transport by providing a cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly way to travel. The International Energy Agency forecasts that there will be 13m electric vehicles (EVs) on the road globally by 2020, while PwC Autofacts predicts that 55% of all new vehicle sales will be fully ...
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A problem shared
Packaging experts working across the automotive industry are continually looking for better visibility when tracking the container and its contents to the point of delivery and back
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Progress for all to CEE
In past decades, international investment has flowed into the automotive industry in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) primarily due to it being a low-cost production centre. However, these days the region has much more to attract such investment, including a well-trained workforce, a wide-ranging supplier base and improving logistics infrastructure, ...
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Sovac starts assembling SKD kits for Audi in Algeria
Audi has begun assembling vehicles at the Relizane plant run by its long-time Algerian partner, Sovac, from semi-knockdown (SKD) kits prepared at the OEM’s Ingolstadt plant in Germany.“[All models] are built at the main plant in Ingolstadt and transported to Barcelona, where they are knocked down into individual assembly groups ...
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CEE auto markets gear up for sustained growth
Sustained growth, a shift from low-cost to high-tech manufacturing, plus an ambition to lead automotive market trends such as electromobility and autonomous driving are now characterising the key economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), delegates heard at the Automotive Logistics Central & Eastern Europe summit in Budapest today (Wednesday ...
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JLR to open engineering office in Budapest
Jaguar Land Rover has announced it will open a technical engineering office in Budapest, Hungary, early next year to support the management of its European supply chain. It follows the official opening of its €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) assembly plant in Nitra (pictured), in neighbouring Slovakia, on October 25.Nick Rogers, ...
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Audi to develop closed loop for battery recycling
German carmaker Audi has begun working with Belgian materials technology and recycling partner Umicore to investigate the potential for recycling the materials in electric car batteries. The companies are looking to adopt a closed-loop approach in which valuable elements such as cobalt, nickel and copper from end-of-life batteries are recovered ...
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WLTP hits sales and profits in Germany
Carmaker VW Group and parts supplier Schaeffler have both put weaker third-quarter financial performance down to the effects of the new Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP).As manufacturers have phased out older passenger car models in advance of the more stringent emissions testing procedure coming into effect on September ...
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VW starts making Seat Tarraco at Wolfsburg
Spanish carmaker Seat, part of the VW Group, has begun producing its Tarraco SUV on assembly lines at VW’s Wolfsburg factory – the first time in 20 years a non-VW vehicle has been built at the plant in northern Germany.Designed and developed in Barcelona, the Tarraco is built on the ...
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Gefco tailors the supply of parts to Audi
Gefco has outlined the details of a recent contract signed with Audi for the supply of parts from Austria to its car plants in Germany. Gefco’s division in Austria is loading various components from three suppliers across four locations in the country and delivering them into Audi’s plants in Neckarsulm ...
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VW Group highlights gains from making Audi A1 in Spain
Volkswagen Group has said it expects substantial logistics benefits to follow, now that it is producing the new-look Audi A1 in Seat’s Martorell factory in Spain.“[It] joins Seat vehicles in most distribution transport flows, which enables us to achieve cost and lead time synergies, both for Seat and Audi,” Seat ...
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Unipart signs aftersales deal with VW
Unipart Logistics has won a new five-year contract with Volkswagen Group to run its UK aftermarket supply chain.More than 450 workers at Volkswagen's Tamworth logistics hub were transferred to Unipart Logistics after it signed a deal with the carmaker.The operation will service more than 900 retailers and trade partners across ...
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Smart logistics underpins Audi e-tron assembly
Audi officially premiered its e-tron electric SUV at a summit event in San Francisco this week but production has been underway for a couple of weeks already at its plant in Brussels, Belgium, which is making the e-tron for global markets. Patrick Danau (left), managing director of Audi ...
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Battling a perfect storm
The finished vehicle sector in North America is dealing with a lot of challenges at the moment. There is a basic imbalance in the number of vehicles that the US imports and exports with its global trading partners, which contributes to ongoing problems involving congestion and limited capacity on hinterland ...
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VW takes Duesmann from BMW and creates new role for Brandstätter
Volkswagen has offered Markus Duesmann (pictured) a position on the group’s management board. He is currently on the management board of rival OEM BMW, where he is responsible for its supplier network and purchasing. The carmaker has also created a new role for its head of procurement, Ralf Brandstätter, who ...
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Audi starts electric motor production at Györ
The first electric motors at Audi’s plant in Györ, Hungary, went into production this week and will be shipped to Belgium for fitment on the Audi e-tron, the carmaker’s first all‑electric model, which is being made at its assembly facility near Brussels.Current production capacity is approximately 400 electric axle motors ...
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A rising tide – with political undercurrents
Mexican production and exports continued to grow through 2017, both to the US and globally. At the same time, US sales remained strong and were fed by an increase in imports from established and emerging markets. It is only in Canada that both sales and assembly are showing a decline. ...
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Grappling with the capacity crunch
With demand for automotive exports via North American ports rising again last year, OEMs face a number of new challenges in handling vehicles in 2018. With capacity already strained at many hubs, the threat of increased regulatory restrictions on trade is adding further uncertainty for manufacturers moving forward.Congestion continues to ...