Audi is looking for an investor for its plant in Brussels

The company has intensively examined a variety of options for the site and discussed them with the employees, said Audi Board Member for Production Walker according to the Handelsblatt newspaper on Tuesday. ‘We are now concentrating on the joint working group and the search for potential investors – always in open and constructive dialogue with the social partners.’ He added that no final decision had yet been made on the future of the site.

The search for an investor does not come as a surprise. Audi had already confirmed at the beginning of the month that it would not be outsourcing any more models to the Belgian plant in Brussels. Neither will any other brand from the VW Group. This made it clear at the latest: there is no lifeline for the crisis-ridden plant, at least not from within the Group. As Volkswagen has recently no longer ruled out the closure of plants in Germany, it is extremely unlikely that the Wolfsburg-based company or another Group brand will have a new model built in Brussels while a plant is closed in Germany. Especially as Audi has been pointing out the structural problems of the Belgian plant for some time, particularly since the restructuring was announced in July.

This means that the plant and its employees can only hope for an external investor or another car manufacturer to take over the plant. In August, the union reported that an investor had expressed interest to Audi in the factory itself and some of the staff, but not in the car production line. VW is also said to have considered using some of the staff to establish battery production for other Group plants. However, according to Audi Board Member for Production Gerd Walker, the latter idea has now been cancelled.

handelsblatt.com (in German)