Perry/Ingolstadt. The German car manufacturer Audi wants to build a new factory in the state of Georgia for four billion dollars (3.6 billion euros), thereby producing for the first time in the USA. The Volkswagen subsidiary plans to produce 200,000 sports off-road vehicles (SUVs) annually, and around 4,500 jobs will be created in Georgia. US President Donald Trump surprisingly announced the project at a campaign event in Perry, Georgia. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner came on stage. He thanked Trump for his support. Criticism of the performance came from the SPD.
The construction of the new US plant still needs to be approved by the Volkswagen supervisory board. However, Audi supervisory board chairman Manfred Döss already supported the board's line. Audi's future will not be secured solely through cost reductions and increased efficiency. “We need the courage to invest, seize new opportunities and make decisions that will shape our company for decades to come.”
The decision should be seen against the background of VW's sales crisis and the discussion about job cuts and possible factory closures in Germany. Audi has locations in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm in Germany. “The planned investment in the USA is not a decision against Germany, but a step to strengthen our global competitiveness,” said a spokeswoman. In addition to Europe and China, North America is the most important growth market.
Prime Minister Olaf Lies, who sits on the VW supervisory board as the representative of the state of Lower Saxony, said that the USA is an important market for Volkswagen and that it is strategically right to develop it even better. "More production there is an opportunity if the factories and employees in Germany also benefit from it. Growth in America must secure work and added value here and must not displace them," the SPD politician made clear.
An Audi statement said construction of the plant is scheduled to begin in 2027. Production of premium SUVs is scheduled to start in the early 2030s. The factory will build premium SUVs tailored to the requirements of North American customers. The USA is one of the most important car markets in the world. “For us, it’s about sustainably strengthening the Audi business in the USA - our own production is the key to this,” said Döllner.
Since the beginning of his second term in office in January 2025, Trump has been demanding that foreign companies relocate production to the USA with the threat of high tariffs. He offered such companies the prospect of waiving tariffs on imports into the USA.
The SPD traffic expert Isabel Cademartori assessed Döllner's appearance as an election campaign aid for an autocrat. “This is a shame, especially considering the history of the VW Group,” she said in Berlin. Volkswagen was founded during the Nazi era and served as a model company for Hitler's regime.
Döllner is not the first German industrial manager to seek proximity to Trump under sensitive circumstances. During Trump's first term in office in 2018, the then Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess, his Daimler colleague Dieter Zetsche and the BMW representative Oliver Zipse visited the White House with the request to talk Trump out of his plans for punitive tariffs on German cars. The greeting of Trump at a meeting of European managers by the then Siemens boss Joe Kaeser, which was perceived by many as excessively submissive, also became almost legendary.
IG Metall was generally positive about the plant plans, but also combined this with a warning. “It is right and necessary to better develop the US market through a new plant,” said First Chairwoman Christiane Benner in a statement. “However, binding perspectives for employees at all locations, especially at local locations, must be clearly defined and recorded.”
