Today was one of days I was most looking forward to. It was a very early day and I woke up around 6am. You’d think I would be tired, but my excitement took that over and I was wide awake during the entire hour and a half bus ride. Once I arrived, I saw some display Audis sitting out in a showroom and was very excited getting to sit in the cars and take pictures.

Next, the tour began and right when I walked into the factory, the level of automation was amazing. First, I saw sheet metal being stamped into car hoods and when these pieces got stamped the entire factory shook from these massive presses. Robots took cars down an assembly line and there was not much human interaction on the line. Robots did everything from screwing in screws to welding pieces of the car together. It was absolutely fascinating to see the level of automation. After the tour we were able to listen to a very interesting presentation regarding Audi’s plans to adapt to changing conditions.

We got lunch at Audi’s factory which consisted of an (overpriced) cafeteria, and I got another currywurst with fries for about the 3rd time. This was very delicious, but not quite as large as the one I got last night, so it gets knocked in my book. For cafeteria food, it was very good. It seems like the cafeteria we were at was entirely for visitors, but I noticed that during the tour they had entire convenience stores for the employees to shop and eat at. It seems like Audi treats their employees very well and has a very clean facility.

In my opinion, Audi is very well suited, and even the most suited, for the changes happening in the industry compared to the other companies we visited. They have already been producing hybrid cars for years and have a business plan for producing only electric cars in 2035. Audi was the only company we visited that had this plan for the future and it makes me confident that they will have no problem succeeding.

After leaving Audi, we headed back to the university and listened to Stephan Nicola speak. He is a car analyst from Bloomberg and had so much knowledge regarding the industry. It was very helpful to have him answer any questions we had regarding the industry.

We were all very hungry at this point so we headed to dinner. I found us a Chinese restaurant to go to which was super delicious and a great way to end our night. Now, I am very excited to go to Munich tomorrow.