Audi to create new production facility in America
Facility in Georgia is planned to commence production in 2030 with up to 200,000 vehicles built each year.
Audi has confirmed that it is setting up a new production facility in Georgia, USA, as the German brand looks to shore up operations in one of its key markets.
The company plans to invest around $4bn (circa £2.9bn) in the facility, which will create approximately 4,500 jobs when production starts in the early 2030s. Audi has stated that once constructed, the plant will have the capacity to create up to 200,000 vehicles each year.
Audi CEO Gernot Döllner appeared alongside US President Donald Trump today (October 24) at a midterm campaign rally in Georgia to announce the news.
The move has been opposed by many, however, with Christiane Benner, president of IG Metall, the primary metalworkers’ union in Germany and one of the largest in Europe, stating: “The way Gernot Döllner presented himself and Audi in the U.S. is highly embarrassing, politically unacceptable, and unworthy of the company—but above all, of Audi’s employees.”
The German brand said that the new facility marks a ‘long-term commitment to the United States’ and would ‘establish North America as a third major pillar of Audi’s global production network alongside Europe and China’.
Döllner said in a statement: “We have much greater ambitions for Audi in America. The United States is one of the world’s most important premium markets, and we have not yet realised our full potential. We are determined to change that — with premium products, a stronger brand and a competitive local production base. This is about building a stronger Audi business in America — not only about building a factory.”