Quattro (four-wheel-drive System)

Quattro (four-wheel-drive System)

Quattro (meaning four in Italian) is the name used by Audi AG to indicate that all-wheel drive (AWD) technologies or systems are used on specific models of the Audi automobiles.

The word "quattro" is a registered trademark of Audi AG, a subsidiary of the German automotive concern, Volkswagen Group.

Quattro was first introduced in 1980 on the permanent four wheel drive Audi Quattro (often referred to as the Ur-Quattro - "Ur-" being German for "ancient" or "great" as in "great-grandfather"). The term quattro has since been applied to all subsequent Audi AWD models. Due to the nomenclature rights derived from the trademark, the word quattro is now always spelled with a lower case "q", in honour of its former namesake.

Other companies in the Volkswagen Group have used different trademarks for their AWD vehicles. While Audi has always used the term "quattro", Volkswagen-branded cars initially used "syncro", but more recently, VW uses "4motion". Škoda simply uses the nomenclature "4x4" after the model name, whereas SEAT uses merely "4". None of the above trademarks or nomenclatures defines the operation or type of 4WD system, as detailed below.