- Audi will shut its manufacturing facility in Belgium early subsequent yr after failing to discover a purchaser.
- Its solely present product, the Q8 E-Tron, will probably be axed on the finish of February 2025.
- VW unions are in talks with firm officers to search out different options for profitability aside from plant closures.
We’ve recognized for months concerning the troubles Audi has been having with its Brussels plant that at this time solely builds the Q8 E-Tron. Rumors that the automaker was contemplating ending manufacturing of the electrical SUV early, basically stopping all work on the facility. This made its 3,000 staff uneasy, and lots of gathered outdoors in protest, even setting tires alight to draw consideration and make the extent of their worries clear.
Offended protesters reportedly broke into the ability final Wednesday and tried to enter the assembly room the place union representatives had been in talks with manufacturing facility officers concerning its future. The police had been known as to take away the protester and try to instill calm, but it surely apparently degenerated into violence, in line with EuroNews.
Audi tried to discover a purchaser for the manufacturing facility, and China’s Nio, which Audi had a naming dispute with prior to now, was reportedly fascinated about taking it over, however that deal was by no means confirmed by both occasion, and nothing materialized. Now Automotive Information says Audi has formally ended the seek for a purchaser, which seemingly means the plant will shut its doorways in a couple of months.
That can in all probability occur when manufacturing of the Q8 E-Tron, which hasn’t been as huge a success as Audi hoped, stops on the finish of February subsequent yr. The explanations behind the Q8 E-Tron’s failure are advanced and are a mixture of falling EV demand in key markets, the arrival of more and more proficient rivals from China, and the truth that it’s only a revamp of the unique Audi E-Tron SUV launched in 2018, which appears like an eternity in the past given the speed of progress of EVs globally.
The Brussels plant may very well be Volkswagen’s first manufacturing facility to close its doorways, however two extra may observe, together with tens of 1000’s of job cuts throughout Europe and a ten% wage reduce for the staff that may keep. That is from one other EuroNews report that quoted Volkswagen’s Normal Works Council Chairwoman Daniela Cavallo as saying, “All German VW crops are affected by this. None of them are protected.”
Audi dad or mum Volkswagen says it was not anticipating post-pandemic demand to be so weak, and it was caught with an excessive amount of manufacturing capability. Reuters says strikes are anticipated in any respect of VW’s European crops beginning subsequent month and all of it depends upon what offers the unions will have the ability to negotiate with the automaker.
The employees’ union is proposing that no factories shut however they’re prepared to just accept concessions like forgoing bonuses in 2025 and 2026 that might yield €1.5 ($1.58) billion in financial savings, and it says it plans to take the automaker to courtroom if it proceeds with the deliberate plant closures. This implies there’s nonetheless an opportunity Volkswagen (and Audi) will hold its overproducing factories open, however it would positively shut them if this poses a menace to its very existence (which isn’t the case but since its funds aren’t within the crimson).
