Lightweight aluminum construction, along with quattro four-wheel-drive are the two key technologies that forms Audi's core technical competencies, as well as the brand's unique selling points.
Audi is currently the largest manufacturer of aluminum bodied vehicles, and also the first to manufacture volume-built aluminum bodied car (Audi A2). Audi's Neckarsulm plant is the most sophisticated and largest aluminum vehicle manufacturing plant in the world. Aluminum material offers the obvious advantage of reduced weight without compromising rigidity and safety. These benefits can later be translated into lower fuel consumption, lower exhaust emission, better handling. The downside to it is cost, because conventional spot welding cannot be used to join aluminum. Instead, MIG, rivet punching and resistance spot welding methods must be employed. Which would mean additional investment in costly machines at the plant. It would also mean that only very few specialists are able to do body collision repairs involving aluminum body panels. The Audi A2 may have been a record breaker but it's hardly a commercial success. However Audi persevered to develop the technology, reserving them only for its flagship A8 limousine and R8 super car to offset the cost, believing that with increasing economies of scale, cost would eventually come down. Recent regulatory developments mandating very strict fuel consumption and exhaust emissions gave further impetus to develop the technology. This is the reason for the increased activities in research on light weight materials like thermoformed plastics and CFRPs (carbon fibre reinforced plastics), most famously used by BMW.
Audi A2 - the first volume-built aluminum bodied car in the world.
The first generation A8, first previewed as the ASF Concept at the 1994 Geneva Motor Show.
Up until recently, the trademarked Audi Space Frame name has been Audi's aluminum technology brand. Although Audi didn't officially put it this way, be we can infer that hybrid aluminum body construction is the next evolution to the famed Audi Space Frame (ASF) technology, first seen in the Audi A8 and subsequently in the Audi A2 (now discontinued), which was the first volume-built all aluminum car in the world. Oddly, aluminum hybrid construction was not given a distinct trademarked brand like ASF.
The aluminum hybrid construction in the A6 differ from the Audi Space Frame technology in terms of materials used. ASF is purely aluminum while aluminum hybrid is a mixture of aluminum and high strength steel, according to Audi's philosophy of "the right material in the right place". Presumably Audi found a cost effective solution to welding aluminum and steel, as the company mentioned little about the production process. In many ways, welding steel-aluminum is even more complicated than welding aluminum only. Audi says the new A6, depending on variant and trim, is between 30kg to 80kg lighter than the outgoing model.
Audi's Neckarslum plant is the largest aluminum car manufacturing plant in the world. I didn't take extra time to verify this but I believe it is not only Audi's only aluminum car manufacturing plant, but also the world's only aluminum car manufacturing plant. It also serves as Audi's aluminum and lightweight materials development lead center, housing Audi's Aluminium and Lightweight Design Centre which developed bodies for the TT Roadster, TT Coupe and R8. Also within the huge sprawling facility is the Audi Forum Neckarslum. It's a showroom but not a showroom in a conventional sense, more like a showcase of the Audi brand.
American aluminum specialist Novellis supplies the aluminum sheets for Audi's flagship A8 limousine and R8 supercar. But it is unclear if Novellis also supplies the same panels for the A6 as no official announcement can be found. Audi's previous aluminum technology partners include Alcan (previously known as Alusuisse) for the A2 and first generation A8.
Prior to the Audi A2's entry into aluminum bodied vehicle construction, other famous aluminum bodied cars include the 1980s Honda NSX and the very early and very rare Gmünd built 1949 Porsche 356 (later models were steel bodied), only 50 of them were built with only about 30 thought to exist today.
Gmünd Porsche 356s are the rarest of all the 356 series. Later Porsche had to shift production of the 356 from its Gmünd facility to Reutter, Stuttgart. But Reutter did not the facilities to shape aluminum panels and thus all later 356 were steel bodied.
The Honda NSX, probably one of the most important modern super car. We have written about it in an earlier entry here.
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