The long game

At 5.45 metres long, the Audi A8 L Horch is no shrinking violet. In fact it measures in at 13 centimetres longer than the Audi A8 L available in other markets which offers extraordinary interior accommodation, but also presents some challenges to the production teams charged with creating this exclusive model because it can’t be carried out in the existing facilities.

As a result, Audi employees sought out – and found – innovative solutions to overcome the size issue but without compromising age exacting quality befitting a model of this calibre. Every A8 car body is made from up to 380 individual components – more than any of the brand’s other vehicles. 

“With the A8, we have a mixture of aluminium and steels, but also carbon and magnesium. The right material in the right place,” says Hellmuth Sonnenfeld, a specialist project leader in the car body construction plant. A total of 530 industrial robots are put to use in the A8 car body construction plant at Audi’s Neckarsulm location. First, the platforms for all A8s, including front and rear sections, are finished in a 600-square-metre assembly hall. Then all the platforms designated for the A8 L Horch format are separated and extended across six stations on a bypass line – that is, parallel to the normal assembly line. All the platforms eventually reunite, then the car bodies are mounted and finished.

This demands the highest quality standards. In addition to ultrasound tests on the line and visual controls by experienced employees, there’s also an augmented-reality solution to simplify work and optimise precision in randomised testing. There are around 6000 connection points on every car body that the employees quickly and easily check with this technology. In the end, the perfect body of an Audi A8 L Horch emerges – ready for its next stop which is the paint shop.

Here everything revolves around handiwork, precision and the most elaborate two-tone paint job in the history of Audi. After all, demands for such a premium-class vehicle are high – its look and finish have to be immaculate.
To be able to paint the A8 L Horch with the current production facilities, the existing conveyor system was extended several kilometres and was equipped with highly complex safety technology. Another challenge was the desire on the Chinese market for a two-tone paint job for the A8 L Horch which was impossible to do with the series-production facilities. The solution was the sports car finish centre. There are 35 hours of additional manual labor in every A8 L Horch with a two-tone paint job.
“I’ve been at Audi for 27 years, but we’ve never had a project this exceptional,” says Ogün Kardes, who’s responsible for process assurance in the paint shop at the Neckarsulm location. 

The taping process required for the job calls for tremendous finesse. On the inside edges of the doors, the second paint colour is applied by hand with an airbrush, while the series-production facilities handle the exterior parts of the car body.

After the second coat of paint and the exterior coat of clear lacquer are dry, it’s deburred (smoothed) by hand which is very delicate work. Where the two paint colours meet, the employees use practiced hand movements to make the edges as smooth as possible. The result is that the transition between the two colours is completely unnoticeable – perfect craftsmanship.

The freshly painted Horch now makes its way to assembly where the precision work continues. At the first production stations, employees used practiced hand movements to attach the Horch badges with the prominent crown on the left and right fenders. 

Installing the rear panorama roof likewise presents a challenge due to its significant size and human-robot collaboration is required – the only one in all A8 assembly. The robot for this came from Ingolstadt and was freed up for the new task thanks to renovations on the assembly lines there. 

With the help of this robot, the employees can precisely fasten and adhere the large glass roof, but the work requires a total of 18 additional work steps to do the job. 

Once complete, the A8 L Horch are prepared for their onwards journey to China – Audi employees locating the cars to be shipped with so-called RFID gates (radio frequency identification) which tells the system where in the Neckarsulm plant the vehicles are waiting to be shipped by train.
Then its a carbon-neutral train trip to Bremerhaven where they are loaded onto a ship. The trip from Neckarsulm to one of three major Chinese ports – Shanghai, Tianjin or Guangzhou – takes four to six weeks.

At each port, Audi employees receive the vehicles and check their integrity once more. A specially designated co-ordinator in the Quality Assurance department is responsible for ensuring proper procedure at all three Chinese ports as well as seeing that the cars are in perfect condition for the handover to the dealers and the very exacting customers waiting for these very special A8 models from Neckarsulm.