Audi will spend $4 billion on its first US plant in Macon, Georgia. It will produce up to 200,000 SUVs per year and create 4,500 jobs. Models Q7, Q8, and Q9 will be assembled there, and part of the production will move from Bratislava, Slovakia, writes The Guardian.
Audi CEO Gernot Döllner announced the plant alongside Trump at a campaign rally a few days before the midterm elections. For a major European brand, this is an unusual step. Trump, in turn, uses every new factory as proof that tariffs are bringing manufacturing back to the US. But, according to The Guardian, employment in the US automotive industry has declined since the beginning of his term. Döllner explained his participation in the rally as respect for the US and called the project a long-term investment in the American market.
Audi has suffered from 15% tariffs on imports from the EU and Trump's anti-EV policies. VW estimates losses from tariffs at up to €5 billion per year, not including a drop in sales. The concern has already moved part of the production of cheap models (Jetta, Taos) from Mexico to the US. At the same time, demand for large gasoline Audi SUVs remains in the US, and the largest of them, the Q9, is being created specifically for the American market.
The investment in the US coincides with VW cutting up to 100,000 jobs and closing plants at home in Germany. The concern explains this by Chinese competition, tariffs, and the expensive transition to electric vehicles, so the new plant could intensify dissatisfaction in Germany.
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