Source: Gasgoo Author: Ramy
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According to the Financial Times, Audi is considering producing electric vehicles in the United States, including using its parent company Volkswagen Group’s $2 billion factory in South Carolina.
Audi CEO Gernot Doellner said the company has discussed “different options on how to produce in the United States” as it looks to increase its market share. Doellner said that “the potential in the U.S. is much more than that” and that “bigger SUVs” will be part of Audi’s U.S. strategy.
Unlike rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz, Audi does not build its cars in the United States. Although Audi builds the Q5 SUV at its plant in Mexico, many of the cars it sells in the U.S. are imported from Europe. Among them, the SUV models Q7 and Q8 are imported from Slovakia.
Image source: Audi
The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has attracted significant investment in electric vehicles by providing generous tax incentives for electric vehicles using U.S.-produced batteries. For example, automakers such as Hyundai have invested billions of dollars in new factories, while Volkswagen Group has slowed plans to set up battery plants in Eastern Europe and instead focused on investments in North America. Volkswagen Group is building an electric vehicle battery factory in Canada, which is expected to receive more than $10 billion in subsidies and be operational by 2027.
However, in the United States, Volkswagen’s business is not going very well, so it hopes to revive the Scout brand. In contrast, Audi has performed relatively well in the United States. Last year, the company’s U.S. deliveries rose 21% to 235,000 vehicles, faster than its performance in China or Europe. On March 19, the company stated that its sales of electric vehicles in the United States will increase by 55% year-on-year from 2022 to 2023.
Döllner also said it would not rule out the possibility of producing cars specifically for the North American market in the region, a “localization” strategy adopted by brands such as Volkswagen, such as “in China, for China.”
In addition, if the new U.S. government revokes the Inflation Reduction Act, it will not have any impact on production transformation. Döllner said it is “not that important” and that canceling the bill “will not make the U.S. market less attractive to us, especially as a high-end manufacturer, we are not so dependent on subsidies, and Volkswagen has already locked in battery incentives in Canada.” Döllner also emphasized, “Our plans are far more than just one session.”
