Audi A3 Celebrates 20th Anniversary

“20 years of the Audi A3 – that is 20 years of success in the compact class. Back then, we founded a new segment with the A3. Today, the high-volume A3 family is a fixed component of our model lineup,”says Prof. Dr. Hubert Waltl, Audi Board Member for Production. “Two decades of the Audi A3 – and behind it a highly qualified production team. Without them, such a success story would not have been conceivable.”  

The compact car from Ingolstadt has become a global player. It has conquered the roads in over 100 sales markets, and it is also manufactured at other Audi production sites. In 2001, the Audi Group had already extended portions of A3 production to its production site in Györ. Today, the Audi A3 Sedan and A3 Cabriolet come off the assembly line at that plant, and in 2014 production volume there was 117,578 models.

Last year, a total of 46,000 Audi A3 Sportback and A3 Sedan cars were produced at the Chinese plant in Foshan. 10,000 additional A3 Sedans were built in Aurangabad, India. Very soon, the premium brand will be producing the A3 Sedan in Brazil as well. Total production volume since the car made its debut 20 years ago is 3,647,833 A3 models.

Series production of the first plug‑in hybrid model at the Ingolstadt plant is a ground‑breaking achievement in the direction of electric mobility. Here, Audi is producing the Audi A3 Sportback e‑tron in the same cycle time and on the same line as conventional A3 models. Demand is especially strong in the Netherlands where every second Audi A3 Sportback car sold is an e-tron. Chinese customers have been able to buy the Audi A3 e‑tron since July. It will launch in the USA at the end of 2015.