Audi Wins Back to Back Awards

Voted Car Company of the year from AutoCar Magazine.

AUDI AG has been presented with one of the automotive world’s most important and coveted Awards: the jury of the renowned British car magazine "Autocar“ has presented the „Autocar Award“ for "Car Company of the Year 2006“ to the premium brand from Ingolstadt.

Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, accepted the Award in the new "Mercedes-Benz World“ at the site of the historic Brooklands race track near London. In his acceptance speech, Winterkorn declared: "this Award is for all Audi employees.“

The decisive factor for the Autocar jury was the range of products that Audi has launched in recent years. When compared to models from premium competitors such as BMW and Mercedes, the magazine concluded that Audi products: "offered equal value, were arguably better built, and often technologically more interesting. Our exhaustive tests show its models now stand with the best“.

And the Audi V12 TDI Wins Race Engine of the Year.

Audi yet again proved "Vorsprung durch Technik” on the race track by taking the first victory for a diesel powered sportscar at the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours. The revolutionary diesel technology has now also triumphed in competition with Formula 1 and other motorsport categories: A panel of experts from the British specialist magazine "Race Engine Technology” voted the 650 hp V12 TDI engine from the Audi R10 TDI as "Race Engine of the Year 2006” and "Alternative Race Engine of the Year”.

On behalf of AUDI AG, Ulrich Baretzky accepted the "Race Engine of the Year” trophy at the Professional MotorSport World Expo in Cologne. The Head of Engine Technology at Audi Sport was also awarded the title "Design Engineer of the Year 2006” at the international motorsport exhibition.

The Audi R10 TDI is unbeaten since making its debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring (USA) last March. The revolutionary diesel sportscar started eight races and took the chequered flag as winner on each occasion – impressive proof of the efficiency of Audi TDI Power.

Audi customers will soon benefit from the experience gained at Le Mans starting with a 500 hp V12 TDI engine for the Q7. Worldwide every second new Audi is already delivered with a diesel engine – trend increasing.