Audi Closes Factory In Belgium, Here's Why

Audi Q8 e-tron. (Doc. Audi AG)

JAKARTA - Bad news came from the German auto brand, Audi. The four-ring logo manufacturer decided to close its factory in Brussels, Belgium after they found no buyer of the facility.

Autocar reported, Monday, December 16, the factory will be closed on February 28. One of its production models, Audi Q8 e-tron will switch assembly facilities to factories in Mexico.

Audi AG's Board of Management Production & Logistics, Gerd Walker said the move to close the factory was a tough decision.

"Personally, it was the toughest decision I've ever made in my professional career," Walker said.

Previously, Audi was reportedly in talks with a number of automotive manufacturers regarding the potential sale of the factory. One of those who intend to acquire is the Chinese manufacturer, Nio. However, they immediately denied it.

In addition, last November, Audi also confirmed that this conversation had failed so they were forced to close the factory.

In addition, Audi is also experiencing long-running structural challenges at the Brussels plant. Its location close to the city center makes restructuring unable to be carried out with greater logistics costs related to shipments compared to other factories located outside the city.

The manufacturer also said the large Q8 e-tron SUV model experienced a global reduction in customer orders in the luxury class segment for EVs.

Audi noted that the decline in demand for Q8 E-tron is "specific segment" and has not indicated other electric vehicles will be affected. In addition, improvements to other models based on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) including Q6 e-tron threaten the popularity of Q8 e-trons built on older MLB architectures.

Although this affects the Q8 e-tron, it is reported that the burning version (ICE) of this model, namely Q8, was not affected by the announcement because it was assembled in different places, namely Bratislava, Slovakia.