Audi Brussels: closure looms

Volkswagen Golfs and Polos, and Audi A1s and A3s have all come off the assembly line in Brussels in recent decades. In 2016 the plant was retooled to make e-tron electric vehicles (EVs) and more recently the Q8 e-tron SUV. When it made the A1, Brussels’ annual output was around 100,000 per annum and in the past production has approached nearly 200,000. However, output has fallen as the model line-up has changed, as the price of the vehicles made there has risen. Last year the 3,033 employees in Brussels (as at the end of 2023) assembled 53,555 vehicles. Now, with Q8 sales slowing markedly in Europe and further afield, the future of the plant is in question. In the first five months of 2024, European sales of the Q8 fell more than 36% from 8,403 to 5,348. In the same five months, sales of premium SUVs (most of which are not EVs) actually rose by 18.5% from nearly 125,000 to 148,000. With the fall in Q8 sales, and no suggestion that they will recover, Audi is now considering ending production of the Q8 e-tron SUV and its Sportback coupe-like version early and has begun the process of employee consultation which Belgian employment laws require.