Audi world, some of which are shared with other VW Group marques although many sub-assemblies such as engines and transmissions are manufactured within other Volkswagen Group plants. Audi's two principal assembly plants are: Outside of Germany, Audi produces vehicles at: In September 2012, Audi announced the construction of its first North American manufacturing plant in Puebla, Mexico. This plant is expected to be operative in 2016 and produce the second generation Q5. From 2002 up to 2003, Audi headed the Audi Brand Group, a subdivision of the Volkswagen Group's Automotive Division consisting of Audi, Lamborghini and SEAT, that was focused on
Audi A4 quattro permanent four-wheel drive remained as an option on most A4 models. Audi retired its 5-speed manual transmissions in favour of a new Getrag 6-speed. As before, multitronic continuously variable transmission (CVT), now with selectable 'seven-speeds', was an option on front-wheel drive models, whilst a conventional ZF 6HP 6-speed tiptronic automatic transmission was an option on the quattro four-wheel drive models. In addition to the Audi S4, which carried over the powertrain from the B6 S4 – Audi reintroduced the quattro GmbH developed Audi RS4 (RS for "RennSport") to the lineup, for the first time on the saloon/sedan and Cabriolet