In June, Audi completed an expansion to its Győr plant specifically for the building of Cabriolets. According to a Wall Street Journal report, at that time the Audi Hungaria Motor Kft site in Győr was “already the biggest car engine plant in the world, supplying engines for nearly all Volkswagen models.”
Some 125,000 A3 Cabriolets are expected to be produced per year at the plant.
For automotive junkies, we’ll borrow extensively from well more authoritative Autoweek to inform that “Three engines will be offered in the new A3 variant at launch: two turbocharged gas units and one diesel. The 1.4-liter gasoline engine makes 140 hp, while the 1.8-liter will deliver 180 hp. The 2.0-liter diesel will produce 150 hp. Other engines will follow, according to Audi, including the 2.0-liter turbo gas motor, which will make 300 hp in the S3 Cabriolet. Audi says, on average, the three motors have 12 percent better fuel economy than the previous engines.
“The 1.8-liter-equipped A3 will come with a seven-speed S-tronic automatic transmission when it debuts; the other two engines get paired with a six-speed manual. A quattro all-wheel-drive system will follow.”
Going into the Motor Show, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) statistics showed that, for the first six months of 2013 sales in Europe fell 6.7% to 6.4 million vehicles and that “Car sales in Europe for [2013] are still expected to be below last year, and some 20% below their 2007 peak of about 16 million vehicles.”
As for Hungary, the automotive industry has been surprisingly lively in contrast with other production subsectors in recent months.
Hosted by the Association of the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA), the Frankfurt Motor Show is a biennial event known as the world’s largest motor show. At the 2011 event, 928,100 visitors checked out 1,012 exhibits, including the introduction of 183 new models.
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