Audi will stop production in Brussels at the end of February 2025
- The Audi assembly plant in Brussels Forest (Belgium), which is a former Volkswagen factory, is one of the only two survivors (along with the Volvo assembly plant in Ghent) of the formerly flourishing Belgian automobile industry. At the end of the 20th century, Belgium had a Ford factory, an Opel factory, a Renault factory, a Volkswagen factory and other small factories. The Volkswagen Brussels Forest factory produced Volkswagen Lupo, Polo and Golf until 2009, then it produced Audi A1 and A3 until 2018, then finally Audi E-Tron from 2019, renamed Q8 E- Tron in 2022.
- These expensive vehicles did not predispose to a high production volume. This is why the production volume of the Brussels Forest factory did not exceed 51,546 units in 2022, compared to 131,226 in 2012 and 204,402 in 2005. The drop in sales of electric vehicles in Germany (-28,6% over the first 9 months of 2024) due to the end of subsidies handicapped the distribution of the Audi Q8 E-Tron whose sales fell by 36.5% in 2024 (Germany being its first market in 2023 and second in 2024, behind the USA).
- What was a possible hypothesis has therefore become a reality. Audi has just confirmed that it will end production of its Q8 E-Tron model at the Brussels Forest site, effective February 28, 2025.
- Production of this vehicle will be transferred to the Mexican plant in San Jose Chiapa where the Audi Q5 is already assembled for the whole world. This decision implies the permanent closure of the Brussels Forest factory, unless another carmaker wishes to set up there or even another company belonging to a completely different sector.