Green technologies are being funded in the US with billions of dollars. This also makes the location attractive for German car manufacturers such as Audi. Parent company Volkswagen should help with the start.
Audi also wants to build electric cars in the USA in the future. The Volkswagen subsidiary has not yet had a plant there, and with the new subsidies “the construction of a US plant for electric cars has of course become very attractive,” said CEO Markus Duesmann of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. “No decisions have been made so far, but the Volkswagen Group will probably build more cars for the US market there than before,” said Duesmann. It is possible to have your own Audi plant or a plant with other VW Group brands. “The probability that we will do this within the group is high, however.”
The “Automobilwoche” reported that the Volkswagen Group will build a new plant in the USA for its new electric car brand Scout. “The decision to build the plant yourself is available as a draft resolution and has thus been made,” quoted the industry newspaper from company circles. The start of production is planned for 2026. First, an electric pick-up and an SUV should roll off the assembly line. It is conceivable that Audi will also produce there. A company spokeswoman said in Wolfsburg that the decision on a new factory had not yet been made.
Volkswagen has a large plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which from now on will also build electric cars. Audi has so far supplied the US market from the SUV plant in Mexico and the other locations. Duesmann announced that more than 20 new Audi models would be launched in the next two years – half of them fully electric. With the new electric Audis, the Ingolstadt-based company hopes to be able to “play just as strong a role as it did with our combustion engines” in the large Chinese market.
In the northern Chinese metropolis of Changchun, Audi is currently building its own plant, in which up to 150,000 electric cars a year are to be built for the Chinese market on the basis of the PPE luxury platform developed with Porsche. So far, Audi has been producing in Changchun in the plants of FAW Volkswagen and in Shanghai at SAIC Volkswagen.
In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides subsidies for green technologies worth billions, but these must be manufactured in the US. For example, the purchase of an electric car “Made in the USA” with a battery that is also made in the USA is subsidized with 7,500 dollars.
The IRA has been causing tension for months: the EU Commission and the EU member states have accused Washington of trade protectionism and discrimination against European companies.
