Audi Plans Georgia Plant With Capacity for 200,000 SUVs a Year
Key Facts
Audi plans to build an assembly plant in Georgia with annual capacity of 200,000 sport utility vehicles, Reuters reported, citing a government official, ahead of an announcement of the plan on October 24, 2026. The planned models include the Q7, Q8 and Q9, according to the report. The plan would expand manufacturing in the United States as the company faces a decline in regional deliveries and pressure related to U.S. tariffs. But the Georgia plant remains a planned project, and the available facts do not specify when it would begin operations. Separately, the official told Reuters that Audi is expected to announce plans to produce 25,000 vehicles in South Carolina, without specifying the model.
The two steps differ in scale and location: the Georgia plant targets annual capacity of 200,000 sport utility vehicles, while the expected announcement in South Carolina concerns production of 25,000 vehicles. Reuters' report did not identify the model to be produced there, so the figure does not confirm a specific model or the start of production. Scout Motors says its investment in its South Carolina plant amounts to $2 billion and that the project will create at least 4,000 permanent jobs. Scout estimates that the facility could reach capacity of up to 200,000 vehicles a year at full operation. These figures place Audi's smaller announced project in the context of a facility under construction with a higher stated production capacity, without establishing that Audi production would use its lines or models.
Audi's expansion plans come as the company's official data show a decline in North American deliveries excluding Mexico. Deliveries totaled 202,143 vehicles in 2025, compared with 230,220 in 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 12.2%. In the first quarter of 2026, the company recorded 35,464 vehicles in the same region, down 27%, and said U.S. tariffs and the end of support for electric vehicles in the United States were the main reasons for the drop. Comparing the two periods offers an indication of a continuing regional decline from one year to the next, though the measurement periods differ: the full year and the first quarter. These figures cover North America excluding Mexico and should not be confused with data for sales in the United States alone.
For the U.S. market specifically, Handelsblatt said Audi registrations fell by more than 16% to around 108,000 vehicles in the first nine months of 2026, describing this as the region's lowest level since 2012. These are registration figures within the United States, not North American deliveries reported by Audi in its official results. The newspaper also reported that the company incurred a loss of nearly 1 billion euros in the United States in the year before its report, and that sources inside Audi expect a further loss of 800 million euros in 2026. The figures link commercial pressures to a financial cost, but remain estimates attributed to Handelsblatt and company insiders. Globally, Audi deliveries totaled 1,042,200 vehicles between January and September 2026, compared with 1,175,800 in the same period of 2025, a decline of 11.4%, according to Volkswagen Group.
Tariffs also feature in the company's explanation for the first-quarter decline: Audi said the 27% fall in regional deliveries was mainly linked to U.S. tariffs and the end of subsidies for electric vehicles in the United States. Together, the two factors put pressure on the company's market there: the cost of importing vehicles and changes in the support available for electric vehicles. Local manufacturing plans matter in this context, but do not in themselves establish how much they will save in costs or when their effects will be felt. Handelsblatt said the group's potential investments are connected to negotiations over government support and incentives and relief from U.S. tariffs. The record of available facts did not include an official decision settling the terms of these negotiations or specifying their outcome.
Audi's information on production sites shows that its Bratislava plant in Slovakia currently produces the Q7 and Q8. Audi does not list the Q9 among the two models cited in the available site information, and the available facts do not specify a date for moving production of any model to Georgia. The Georgia plant plan reported by Reuters is therefore limited to the stated capacity and announced models, with no documented operating timetable or other implementation details. Audi, by contrast, has given a financial outlook for 2026 that includes revenue of between 63 billion and 68 billion euros, an operating margin of between 6% and 8%, and net cash flow of between 3 billion and 4 billion euros. These are the forecasts the company reaffirmed in its 2025 financial report; the available facts contain no later dates for plant announcements or the outcome of subsidy negotiations.