Audi Is Closing Its Brussels Plant And Killing The Q8 e-tron

Audi is closing the door on nearly 80 years of history. The German automaker’s plant in Forest, Belgium, is shutting its doors at the end of February. Vehicles have been built at the plant since 1948, with the first Volkswagens rolling off the line in 1954 and it becoming home to Audi in 2010.

Audi

Founded

1909

Founder

August Horch

Headquarters

Ingolstadt, Germany

Owned By

Volkswagen Group

Current CEO

Gernot Döllner

Production Status

Available

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Along with the closure of the facility, approximately 3,000 employees will lose their jobs. Audi will also end production of the Q8 e-tron SUV at the same time, choosing not to move it to another plant.
Plant Closure Took Months Of Negotiations

Plant closures in the US can be as simple as a mass layoff announcement. In the EU, it has taken much more time and effort. Thomas Bogus, CEO of Audi Brussels, said that management and social partners invested in the plant have reached an agreement to help compensate the 3,000 employees who are losing their jobs.

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« I am very pleased that, despite difficult negotiations, we were able to reach a fair settlement for the employees in cooperation with the social partners. This result demanded a lot from all negotiating parties until the end. But in the end, everyone focused on the essentials and put the employees at the center of their actions, » said Bogus.
Audi stakeholders have negotiated new measures for older workers as well as coaching services and job placement assistance. That’s on top of the deal it announced last December, where workers would receive more than double the legally required amount of severance. At the time, it was reported that a 17-year worker at the plant could receive up to $200,000 for the loss of their jobs. The new measures weren’t announced.

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« We have a social responsibility for all employees, » said Audi board member for production Gerd Walker. « That is why it was important to us and to me personally that we reach a joint solution with the social partners in Brussels. We have achieved this with the social plan that has now been agreed.”
Plant Opened In 1948, Has Built 8 Million Vehicles

Groundbreaking for the Brussels plant was in September 1948, built by Belgium’s Volkswagen importer. The first vehicles the plant built were Studebaker models, which Volkswagen had an import license to bring to Europe.
In 1954, the first Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the line at the plant. Six years later, it hit 100,000 Volkswagens, Studebaker production ended, and Porsche production moved in. It produced a range of VW models, including the Passat, Lupo, and Golf, over the decades, but in 2006 VW announced it would lose 3,500 jobs and the Golf when the MK6 arrived in 2009.

All-Electric Audi Q8 e-tron SUV Has One Foot In The Grave

Audi has announced that global demand for its electric luxury SUV – and luxury EVs in general – is falling badly, and jobs are at stake.

Audi took over in 2010, building the A1 city car there until 2016. From 2018, Audi Brussels was home to e-tron models, with the Q8 e-tron name added to the vehicle in 2022.
Closing the plant means ending production of the Q8 e-tron electric crossover. The EV was not a strong seller, and while Audi hasn’t announced sales of the EV for 2024, sales of every Audi EV other than the Q4 and Q6 combined to just 41,000. That’s the same number of RS models Audi sold last year.