Audi’s troubled Brussels plant which makes the Q8 e-tron will close in February next year after the carmaker’s failure to find a substitute investor.
Following the withdrawal of the last potential investor for Audi’s plant in Brussels, the carmaker has said it will close the plant at the end of February 2025 and has turned to focus on how it will manage the redundancy of its workers.
“The working group on possible alternative uses did not produce viable solutions for the immediate future of the plant and the short-term preservation of as many jobs as possible,” said Audi in a statement. “Our goal remains to bring the information and consultation process to an amicable conclusion in November after more than four months together with the social partners.”
As announced in July this year, decline in demand for the Q8 e-tron and Q8 Sportback e-tron, which are made there, comes on top of long-standing structural challenges at the Brussels site along with high logistics costs, according to the carmaker. The Brussels plant does not have a press shop and limited local suppliers because of its location so parts are brought in over greater distances and the inbound logistics is more complex and costly. That has made production costs higher compared to other sites.
Audi did not confirm reports in the press that the plant has been closed for two weeks because of a parts supply problem but a spokesperson said the carmaker was in continuous exchange with its suppliers and focused on ”the greatest possible transparency” during a difficult situation for everyone involved. ”The goal remains to manufacture the vehicles already ordered,” said the spokesperson.
The closure of the Brussels plant comes at a time when the wider VW Group is planning to close at least three plants in Germany, make further staff redundancies and cut pay by 10% across its workforce, according to the head of VW’s works council, Daniela Cavallo. Part of the problem is that while VW has invested heavily in EVs for the mid and premium segments it has been slow to develop an affordable mass-market EV.
Audi had sought alternative plans from a number of parties for the future of the plant, including a commercial vehicle maker, but last month the company said that none of the 26 interested parties had come up with a viable and sustainable concept for the plant.
In a statement Audi said that there is “no economic follow-up allocation for the Brussels site within the VW Group” and that its information and consultation process was ongoing.
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