Audi’s Georgia Plant Plan Targets Annual Production of 200,000 SUVs
Key Facts
Audi is preparing to establish a new assembly plant in Georgia with planned annual capacity of 200,000 sport utility vehicles, Reuters reported, citing a government official, with President Donald Trump expected to announce the plan on Saturday, October 24, 2026. That means the project is being presented as a plan in preparation for announcement, not an investment whose implementation has begun. Handelsblatt, meanwhile, said the project was advanced but cited supervisory board sources saying Audi and Volkswagen Group had not made a formal decision. An Audi spokeswoman declined to comment on the newspaper’s report, and the company also told Reuters it would not comment. The German report linked completion of the investment to unresolved negotiations over government support, incentives and relief from U.S. tariffs.
Reuters quoted the same official as saying Audi is also expected to announce plans to produce 25,000 vehicles in South Carolina. The move is part of a phased approach that would allow the company to build vehicles based on Scout models at the Scout plant under construction in the state, an option faster than building a new facility in Georgia, according to Handelsblatt. The plant is in Blythewood, and Scout Motors has announced an investment of 2 billion dollars there, with the project expected to create more than 4,000 permanent jobs. The company says the facility will be capable of producing up to 200,000 vehicles a year at full capacity. Handelsblatt, by contrast, estimates the plant’s capacity at around 250,000 vehicles a year, above the maximum capacity announced by Scout Motors.
Audi is facing a downturn in its U.S. business as it looks to expand local production. Handelsblatt said the company incurred a loss of nearly 1 billion euros in the United States in the year before the report, and that people within the company expect another loss of around 800 million euros in 2026. U.S. Audi registrations also fell by more than 16% to around 108,000 vehicles in the first nine months of 2026, their lowest regional level since 2012, the newspaper said. Audi’s official 2025 results show deliveries in North America, excluding Mexico, totaled 202,143 vehicles, compared with 230,220 in 2024, a year-on-year decline of 12.2%. The company said orders in 2025 rose by more than 13% from the previous year, despite the impact of U.S. tariff policy on the auto sector.
Audi attributed some of the pressure to U.S. tariffs and the end of support for electric vehicles. In the first quarter of 2026, the company’s deliveries in North America excluding Mexico fell 27% to 35,464 vehicles, and it said tariffs and the end of U.S. subsidies for electric vehicles were the main reasons for the decline. In this context, Volkswagen has made government support a condition for an investment worth billions of dollars, according to Handelsblatt. The negotiations include financial incentives and the possibility of tariff relief, the newspaper said, and no agreement has been reached. The decision to build a Georgia plant is therefore tied to whether the company and government can agree on terms that make the investment viable, while Audi and the group have yet to issue a formal decision.
A redistribution of production could also affect Audi plants in Europe. The Q7 and Q9 are currently built in Bratislava, Slovakia, and Handelsblatt reported that their production in Georgia could begin after they are updated during the 2030s. This remains a future possibility linked to the plan, not an announced change to current production locations. The newspaper estimates the Middle Georgia Mega Site near Fort Valley covers around 620 hectares and says local authorities are promoting it to automakers and construction equipment manufacturers. Between using the Scout plant to build vehicles based on its models and the possibility of moving production of larger Audi models to Georgia later, the plan ranges from nearer-term production in South Carolina to a Georgia project that is still awaiting a formal decision and terms on support and tariffs.