Audi was the first German premium carmaker to see potential in the compact segment, launching the A3 in 1995, two years before the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and nine years before the BMW 1-Series.
20 years and three generations later, Audi is proud to announce that it has built over 3.6 million units worldwide – 3,647,833 vehicles to be precise.
Exactly 20 years ago, on September 18, 1995, the first Audi A3 rolled off the assembly line at Audi’s plant in Ingolstadt. Today, one of five Audi cars delivered worldwide belongs to the expanded A3 family.
Back in 1995, the Audi A3 was built exclusively as a three- and five-door hatchback. Today in Ingolstadt, Audi produces the Audi A3 three-door hatch, A3 Sportback five-door hatch, A3 Sportback e‑tron plug-in hybrid and A3 Sportback g‑tron natural‑gas powered car. In 2014 alone, the plant built a total of 188,465 A3 automobiles. Remarkably, the classic A3 models are built on the same production line with the models with alternative drive systems.
In 2015, the Audi A3 has become a global player, being present in over 100 sales markets and manufactured at other Audi production sites. The first expansion came in 2001, when Audi moved a part of A3 production to its plant in Györ, Hungary.
Today, that plant builds the Audi A3 Sedan and A3 Cabriolet – 117,578 units were manufactured there in 2014. Audi also builds A3 Sportback and A3 Sedan cars at the Chinese plant in Foshan, where 46,000 units were built last year. 10,000 additional A3 Sedans were built in Aurangabad, India as well. Soon, the A3 Sedan will be made in Brazil too.
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