Exactly 40 years ago, Audi revolutionised the automotive world. With its permanent quattro all-wheel drive the company, in 1980, presented a new approach to chassis technology that still decisively underpins the slogan 'Vorsprung durch Technik'.
Today, thanks to smart interlinking by the Electronic Chassis Platform (ECP), innovative chassis systems such as electromechanical Active Roll Stabilisation (eAWS), the predictive active suspension and Dynamic All-wheel Steering (DAS) are able to unfold their full potential.
In the future, an integrated vehicle dynamics processor will handle longitudinal and lateral dynamics control as well as energy and powertrain management - recuperating energy during a braking event, determining the damper compression rate within milliseconds and keeping the vehicle precisely on track - all practically at the same time.
The future vehicle dynamics processor will be centrally controlling nearly all functions in longitudinal, lateral and vertical dynamics such as the chassis, powertrain and recuperation functions, and still be clearly more powerful than today's ECP, for instance. It will operate about 10 times as fast as current systems and be able to control up to 90 system participants - compared to about 20 in the case of the current ECP.
Chassis technology development at Audi emphasises intensified interlinking of individual mechatronic chassis components and vehicle functions using smart electronic control. Due to this smart ECP interlinking of chassis technologies that have undergone continuous further development such as permanent quattro all-wheel drive, the adaptive air suspension and DAS, Audi has forged a successful link between superior ride comfort and high-level driving dynamics.
