Audi will build its first factory in the United States, investing around $4 billion in a Georgia plant that the company says will create about 4,500 jobs and have capacity for up to 200,000 SUVs a year.
The plant will come up at the Middle Georgia Mega Site in Peach County, near Macon. Audi says construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with production starting in the early 2030s. Georgia's state government has given a more detailed timeline: site grading in 2027, building construction in 2028, and full production by 2031.
The announcement came on Saturday night at a campaign rally addressed by US President Donald Trump in nearby Perry, with Audi chief executive Gernot Döllner sharing the stage. Trump put the investment at $4.2 billion and said construction would start next month; neither figure matches what Audi or the state have confirmed.
Audi has said only that the factory will produce "premium SUVs tailored to North American customers." At the rally, Döllner spoke of bringing "our biggest and most premium SUVs" to Macon. A US official told international news agencies that the plant is expected to assemble the Q7, Q8 and Q9, though Audi has not confirmed this, nor said whether the models will be petrol, hybrid or electric.
The move follows years of pressure from US import tariffs. Audi, part of the Volkswagen Group, remains the only major German luxury brand without American manufacturing, shipping every US-market car from plants in Europe and Mexico. The company's own annual results attributed a hit of 1.2 billion euros to US tariffs last year, while its American sales have fallen 16 percent this year. Rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz have built SUVs in South Carolina and Alabama for decades and have recently expanded those plants.
Audi had in fact shelved a US plant earlier this year, citing the tariff burden. It now says the new factory will "reduce exposure to trade and currency risks" and establish North America as a third pillar of its manufacturing network alongside Europe and China.
The plan still awaits approval from Volkswagen's supervisory board, and has drawn mixed reactions in Germany. Labour leaders have welcomed the investment but criticised Döllner's appearance at a partisan political rally, with one union chief calling it "deeply embarrassing." Döllner has defended the decision, insisting Germany "remains the backbone of Audi."
The Georgia plant mirrors a strategy Audi is also pursuing in India, where it began local assembly of the new Q3 last month at Škoda Auto Volkswagen India's Maharashtra plant, part of a push to raise locally built volumes closer to 95 percent of its India sales. The flagship Q9, the model expected in Georgia, is due in India as an import in 2027.
