Audi considers opening extra plant for the Q4 e-tron

[Steve Q]

According to a media report, Audi wants to build its Q4 e-tron electric SUV, which is produced in Zwickau, in Brussels from November 2022 due to high demand. The final decision will be made at the VW planning meeting on 9 December.

This was reported by Automobilwoche with reference to company circles. Currently, the Q4 e-tron and the Q4 e-tron Sportback are built together with other MEB models – specifically the ID.3, ID.4, ID.5 and Cupra Born – at the VW plant in Zwickau, Saxony. Only the Skoda Enyaq is produced as an MEB model at Skoda’s main plant in Mlada Boleslav.

As demand is generally high, the Volkswagen brand has already put the Wolfsburg plant up for discussion for overflow production. But Audi is apparently also considering building the Q4 e-tron in a second plant in the future. The choice is said to have been made against the Neckarsulm combustion engine site and in favour of the Belgian plant in Brussels, according to the report. 

Audi has been building only the e-tron quattro and its Sportback offshoot in Brussels since 2018. Unlike the MEB model Q4 e-tron, the larger Audi SUV is still based on the MLB Evo combustion engine platform. The batteries for the e-tron quattro are also assembled in Brussels. It is not known whether Audi will do the same for the Q4 e-tron or whether the MEB battery packs will be delivered pre-assembled.

What is clear, however, is what will happen at the Brussels plant from 2026 onwards: from then on Audi plans to build the Q8 e-tron in Belgium, as Audi boss Markus Duesmann said at a local event in November. The large electric SUV is likely to be roughly the same size as the internal combustion model Q7, while the e-tron quattro (technically related to the internal combustion model Q5) and the upcoming Q6 e-tron (from Ingolstadt from 2023) are a class below. 

For Brussels – if the planning round next week agrees – the overflow production of the Q4 e-tron would be a great success. The plant had probably also bid for the production of Audi’s Artemis model, but lost out to VW Commercial Vehicles’ Hanover plant. If the information from Automobilwoche is correct here, Brussels would have prevailed against the German plant in Neckarsulm, where, according to the report, hopes had also been pinned on obtaining production of an electric vehicle model. 

https://www.electrive.com/2021/11/30/audi-considers-opening-extra-plant-for-the-q4-e-tron/