Audi: The 50 starts 50 years ago
NEW SMALL CAR SEGMENT The Audi 50 was a new kind of small car launched in 1974 after the oil price crisis. It was economical in terms of fuel consumption and the concept with front-wheel drive and two-door estate body was groundbreaking.
The Audi 50 was also a blueprint for the almost identical VW Polo, which the Wolfsburg-based company launched seven months later. Using synergies within the Group family was already a recipe for success 50 years ago. As early as 1970, the engineers at Audi NSU Auto Union AG set to work. What was needed was a modern successor to the NSU small cars.
Transverse engine with 1.3 liter displacement
The key to success was the transversely mounted engine. With it, the Ingolstadt-based company created a car that offered a relatively large interior with an overall length of just 3.49 meters. The small car, which weighed just 685 kilograms, was launched as the Audi 50 LS with 50 hp and the Audi 50 GL with 60 hp, both with a 1.1-liter engine. The Audi 50 LS reached 142 km/h, the Audi 50 GL 152 km/h. From 1977, a newly developed 1.3-liter engine was used.
Base premium of 8195 German marks
Ingolstadt presented the Audi 50 to the media in Sardinia in the summer of 1974, and it arrived in dealerships in October - at a price of 8195 marks. By March 31, 1975, exactly 43,002 Audi 50s had rolled off the production line at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, after which series production of the VW Polo also began. Production of the Audi 50, of which a total of 180,828 units were produced, ended in the summer of 1978.
