BERLIN — Audi plans to construct a battery-powered model of its range-topping SUV, the Q8, at its plant in Brussels, securing the manufacturing facility’s future, based on Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive Information Europe.
Manufacturing on the car, which might be referred to as the Q8 e-tron, will start in 2026, according to the report, which cited firm sources.
The plant at the moment builds the Audi e-tron and e-Tron Sportback EVs, that are on account of get a facelift in 2023, then exit of manufacturing in 2026. The 2 automobiles are underpinned by Audi’s MLB Evo platform, which is being phased out and changed by the Premium Platform Electrical.
The Q8 e-tron will substitute the Q8, which is constructed at Volkswagen Group’s manufacturing facility in Bratislava, Slovakia and bought solely with combustion engines together with hybrid drivetrains.
Audi bought 5,313 models of the Q8 in Europe by way of April, up 37 % year-on-year, based on JATO Dynamics market researchers.
Audi’s works council welcomed the choice to allocate the Q8 e-tron to the Brussels plant. “For us, it is necessary that that Audi fashions are produced at Audi areas,” a works council spokesman told German motoring journal auto motor sport.
Audi’s worker representatives have been lobbying for guardian Volkswagen Group so as to add extra electric-car manufacturing to the luxurious model’s factories.
The works council is reported to be sad that the Audi This autumn E-Tron is being constructed at VW’s plant in Zwickau, Germany, alongside its MEB platform siblings the VW ID3 and ID4, and Cupra Born. Skoda’s MEB-based electrical SUV, the Enyaq, is being produced on the model’s predominant plant in Mlada Boleslav within the Czech Republic.
Questions over the way forward for the Brussels-based plant arose final yr after the positioning misplaced a bid to construct Audi’s new flagship electrical sedan, codenamed the Landjet and developed by its Undertaking Artemis. The sedan is scheduled to start out manufacturing in 2024 alongside variations for Porsche and Bentley.
That bid was received by VW’s industrial autos manufacturing facility in Hanover, Germany, leaving the Belgian plant with out a follow-up challenge for the e-tron and e-tron Sportback, at the moment the one autos produced on the website.
The plant is greater than 70 years previous, with the primary car rolling off the manufacturing line in 1949. It at the moment employs 3,076 individuals.
In line with Automobilwoche, the ultimate choice on the manufacturing location for the Q8 e-tron might be made in November through the firm’s subsequent planning spherical. This might permit sufficient time to make sure the plant has sufficient capability to provide the SUV.
When contacted by Automotive Information Europe, an Audi spokesperson stated the corporate wouldn’t touch upon speculative information studies.
Audi stated on June 22 that it will phase out production of combustion engines by early next decade besides in China, as the corporate accelerates its transition to turning into an electric-only automaker.