Audi gives 8000 dollar bonus to all its German workers

Audi AG announced on Wednesday that it is handing out bonuses that average €5,300, the current equivalent of $8,215, to reward its 45,000 German workers for "outstanding results."

In comparison, Ford recently announced it would give its U.S. workers a $1,000 "performance award" in March.

Audi noted that the 2008 bonus "represents 43 percent more than the year before." It also said it will hire 800 new workers, primarily engineers, this year.

Audi said it sold a total of 964,151 cars in 2007. It confirmed that it "plans to nearly double the number of models in its portfolio by 2015, from the 25 currently on offer, to 40."