Audi boasts full-time four-wheel drive, which is the transliteration of quattro.
Quattrro is the registered trademark of Audi's four-wheel drive technology owned by Volkswagen. In 1980, Audi unveiled a model equipped with Quattro full-time four-wheel drive technology at the Geneva Motor Show, marking the birth of Quattro, Audi's signature technology. Audi's Quattro full-time four-wheel drive system has undergone six innovations and has become a representative four-wheel drive technology that responds quickly, is stable and reliable. The core technology of Audi Quattro is the purely mechanical Torsen center differential.
Extended information
The principle of full-time four-wheel drive
In the transmission system of a full-time four-wheel drive vehicle, a central differential is set up to distribute power to Front and rear transaxles. Different from part-time four-wheel drive and timely four-wheel drive, full-time four-wheel drive always maintains four-wheel drive during driving. According to different road conditions, the central differential distributes the engine power to the front and rear wheels in a certain proportion.
Because it is "always on" four-wheel drive, compared to other four-wheel drive systems, there is no response time for switching between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, and the active safety is superior. It is not difficult to understand from the structural principle. Compared with two-wheel drive models, full-time four-wheel drive distributes the engine's power output to the four wheels through the transmission system, so it can obtain more stable traction. Even when encountering extreme road conditions (muddy wetlands, mountain roads) or intense driving, the full-time four-wheel drive has high passability and stability. However, compared with timely four-wheel drive, fuel consumption is higher.
Full-time four-wheel drive systems are mostly used in mid-to-high-end models, such as Mercedes-Benz's 4MATTC, BMW's xDrive, Audi quarrtro, Acura SH-AWD, etc.