Audi agrees to assemble battery packs in Germany

It has taken some wrestling but now the Audi management and worker’s council agreed on installing a battery assembly in Ingolstadt. The site thus builds up “competence for future technologies” says the union, that before managed to convince Audi to build two new electric SUVs here.

The timeline has 2021 and 2022 respectively at its farer end and for Audi to reorganise and modernise production at one of their main production facilities is quite a task. Nothing has been said about the planned production capacity but the agreement confirms the initial guarantee of 60,000 jobs at the Audi HQ at least until 2025.

++ Kindly see an update to this article below. ++

Similarly little is known about the electric SUVs to be build in Germany. It is likely though that at least one of the novel models will utilise the new premium platform PPE Audi is working on with Porsche reportedly, rather than Volkswagen’s global EV platform MEB.

The latest decision to add a battery assembly line in Ingolstadt as well will also pour water over flames that sparked high, when Audi decided to locate the e-tron and e-tron Sportback production in Brussels starting next year (we reported).

And again today, the head of the general work’s council Peter Mosch stressed that the Audi management needs to develop a coherent strategy and involve the council early on, despite the concessions already made. Clearly, the union sees the future in battery-electric vehicles and it was interesting to note that the reply of Bram Schot, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi, positioned electric cars made in Germany as crucial as well.

On a global level however, Audi’s extensive electrification strategy includes the launch of 20 electrified models by 2025 and recently detailed an investment of more than 14 billion euros for the e-mobility advance. The brand’s production plans include facilities in Mexico and Hungary to make Audi plug-ins and Schot also pointed to China obviously.

In other news, Audi has confirmed Bram Schot as Chairman of the Audi Board of Management, a position the Dutchman had held since June 2018 as interim CEO, following Rupert Stadler’s arrest.

Update December 17, 2018: Only days after the decision to install a battery assembly in Ingolstadt, Audi has opted to do the same at the plant in Neckarsulm. There, Audi will start construction in 2019 to supply electric cars made at the main plant. Preparations are already underway.

audi-mediacenter.com (Ingolstadt), audi-mediacenter.com (Bram Schot), audi-mediacenter.com (Neckarsulm, in German)