For a few years, Audi had one heck of a hot streak. It started in the mid-1990s when Audi dropped the still modern-looking A6 and A8 sedans, followed by the A4 and then the TT. The streak kept going, with Audi launching its W engines, the V10 S6, the R8 supercar, and the Q7 with a diesel V12 under the hood.Sometime in the mid-2010s, the music stopped. Audi lost its mojo. There was no more vorsprung in its technik, as it were. Now Audi wants it back, and one figure from last year shows just how hard Audi's engineers are working to do it. Audi Is Patently Improving Audi 1,912. No, that's not minutes in a year or R8s sold or anything like that. The figure is the number of patent applications that Audi filed with the German DPMA in 2025. That's the fourth-most of any company in that country, and one the company's bosses says is "a strong sign Audi is back in the game when it comes to progress."It's less impressive if you look at the top four spots on the list, held by Robert Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW. Still, it beats the heck out of last year, when Audi was 9th with 1,058 new inventions. That put it below General Motors Germany and a company that only makes bearings. Yes, bearings.Audi CEO Gernot Döllner said that Audi is facing pressure, but that it is turning that pressure into energy. It made cuts, but it has realigned itself technologically. It now, he said, has the youngest portfolio of vehicles in its segments. It has also entered F1, the pinnacle of motorsports tech.Döllner said that tomorrow's tech isn't created through yesterday's structures. To try and make tomorrow's tech, the company has restructured to have 85% fewer committees, shorten decision-making times, and let innovation happen. Germany Wants To Get Back In The Tech Game Audi Döllner said that the US and China are driving industry megatrends, and that Germany and Europe have fallen behind. This doesn't mean mechanical components, but hardware and software. Software-defined vehicles, where buzzwords live, are good for automakers, at least those who have them. To catch up, Audi and the VW Group have partnered with Rivian. Audi is currently testing those models in the cold, and the first vehicle to use the new co-developed architecture should come in 2028, he said.Döllner said that Audi will work to better use its resources inside its other brands and in the wider VW Group. The first move there might be bringing over Rouven Mohr as CTO, coming from the same job at Lamborghini.Audi In three years with Lamborghini, Rouven brought ideas like the company's new PHEV system, including a new compact transverse transmission to life. He also oversaw the 10,000 rpm V8 that lives under the rear engine cover of the Temerario. That's the kind of vorsprung that modern Audi needs."The future will be more digital, and it will still be unmistakably Audi, and with our electric sports car, which will be produced at Böllinger Höfe starting in 2027, we are bringing our design of radical clarity to our model portfolio, the Audi Concept C,: said Döllner. "The Audi Concept C offers a very concrete glimpse of what Vorsprung durch technik [progress through technology] will mean in the future, both inside and out, the concept car is our visualized target. It shows our customers, stakeholders and all employees, where we are headed."
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