Audi has been negotiating a social plan for the 3,000 employees with the works council of the plant in Brussels and the unions since Tuesday. This was announced by production director Gerd Walker.
The work is on the brink. So far, Audi has spoken to more than 20 potential investors from the automotive industry. But no one secures employment at the location in the long term, said Walker. An interested party wants to revise his personnel concept in the next few days. From Audi’s perspective, what is important is “a viable and sustainable concept for the location and the employees,” says Walker.
Audi is considering to close the Brussels plant and advises – as in Belgium Required by law – with works councils and unions talking about it for months. The small factory only produces a single model, the Q8 e-tron electric SUV, whose sales figures are shrinking.
High logistics costs
The parent company Volkswagen does not want to launch a new model in Brussels because the factory has very high logistics costs because there are only a few suppliers on site. The location between a residential area, railway tracks and the motorway makes expansion difficult.
The car manufacturer Nio recently showed interest in the plant. Because of EU tariffs on Chinese electric cars, the Chinese electric car manufacturer is currently looking for a production facility in Europe. The company could now find what it is looking for at the ailing factory of the Volkswagen subsidiary Audi.