The Audi logo is seen on a car dealership in Manhattan.
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DETROIT — Audi’s CEO on Sunday defended the automaker’s plan to build a new $4 billion factory in Georgia, calling it a business move aimed at boosting sales and reducing exposure to U.S. tariffs.
The plant, expected to be Audi’s first in the United States, was announced Saturday by President Donald Trump at a rally in Georgia, near where the plant is located. VolkswagenThe brand-owned luxury brand plans to build the new SUV production plant.
“We have much bigger ambitions for Audi in America,” Audi CEO Gernot Dollner said during a media roundtable on Sunday. “The United States is the second largest premium market in the world, and today we are not fully exploiting this potential. We are changing that.”
The announcement comes amid an intense restructuring at its parent company VW, including plans to cut 50,000 jobs and close four German plants, including an Audi plant, between 2031 and 2034.
Dollner, who joined Trump at the rally, said the decision on a U.S. plant was years in the making, with more than 70 sites evaluated over “several months” and “intense” negotiations with public officials.
“This is not a decision against Germany. Germany remains the backbone of Audi,” Dollner said. “We develop our cars here. Our technologies are created here and Georgia does not take any work away from us in Germany.”
Dollner said localized production was the best decision for the brand, which has struggled with sales this decade due to rising operational costs and Trump’s tariffs on vehicles coming to the United States from Germany and other countries. Current customs duties on vehicles from Germany are 15%, up from 25%.
Last year, U.S. tariffs cost Audi 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) because the company imports all of its vehicles for the U.S. market from Europe or Mexico.
Dollner said the Trump administration asked Audi to announce the new plant at the Georgia rally to promote Republicans ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
“It was… a three-year project that in the end, by chance, led to this moment yesterday,” he said Sunday. “Out of respect for the office and the country, we have joined the invitation.”
Dollner noted that Audi is the latest major German luxury brand to establish production in the United States after Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
The company said the Georgia plant is expected to begin production of the Audi Q7, Q8 and Q9 in the early 2030s. The plant would have the capacity to produce up to 200,000 vehicles per year, about half of which the automaker says will be exported outside the United States.
“It’s obviously about making Audi a significant player here in the U.S. market,” Audi of America President Vito Paladino said during the panel discussion. He also said additional details on U.S. investment and production would be forthcoming.
Audi’s U.S. deliveries remained roughly flat in the third quarter of this year, following a 16% decline between 2024 and 2025.
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