What is the name of Audi's all-wheel-drive system?

Audi’s all-wheel-drive system is called quattro.

“quattro” is Audi’s trademark for the all-wheel-drive technologies fitted to selected cars. The name is Italian for “four,” and Audi deliberately styles the brand name with a lower-case q. It describes a family of systems rather than one identical mechanical design used across every Audi model.

Audi introduced quattro in 1980 on the original Audi Quattro, commonly nicknamed the Ur-Quattro. That car paired a front-mounted engine with permanent four-wheel drive and a turbocharged engine, an unusual combination for a high-performance road car at the time. Its success in rallying helped make all-wheel drive a major part of Audi’s identity.

The engineering has changed over the decades. Older systems used lockable differentials, later longitudinal models used Torsen or crown-gear differentials, and some transverse-engine Audis use electronically controlled clutch systems. Audi also developed quattro ultra, which can disconnect drive to an axle when appropriate to reduce losses.

AWD is the generic term, not Audi’s model-specific trademark. BMW’s comparable branding is xDrive, while Mercedes-Benz uses 4Matic.