Audi’s planned $4 billion factory in Georgia still needs approval from Volkswagen’s supervisory board, IG Metall and Audi’s works council say, two days after President Donald Trump announced it at a campaign rally.
Trump unveiled the plant Saturday in Perry, Georgia, with Audi CEO Gernot Döllner on stage. The factory near Macon would build up to 200,000 SUVs a year and employ about 4,500 people. Trump valued the investment at $4.2 billion, while Audi cites about $4 billion and puts construction at 2027 and production in the early 2030s.
Audi works council chief Jörg Schlagbauer says no reliable decision exists yet, and Volkswagen (ETR: VOW3) supervisory board Chair Hans Dieter Pötsch has noted the board still must decide. Half the board’s seats go to worker representatives.
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IG Metall Chair Christiane Benner, who holds the deputy chair seat on Volkswagen’s supervisory board, called the plan “right and necessary” but criticized the announcement and demanded firm prospects for workers at every site, especially in Germany. A union spokesperson said the group struggled to understand Döllner’s decision to back Trump. The works council warned that US expansion cannot cost German sites their future and wants Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm at full capacity, which one report says they are not.
Volkswagen said on September 3 that it will cut about 100,000 jobs worldwide by 2030, roughly 15% of its workforce. In Germany, it agreed to more than 35,000 cuts in December 2024 and plans 12,000 more at Volkswagen AG by 2030, according to an October 23 statement.
Read: Volkswagen Board Approves 100,000 Job Cuts, Curbs Its Own Union Veto Power
The company and unions say they cannot guarantee the future of plants in Hannover, Emden, Zwickau and Neckarsulm, though labor representatives say no closure has been approved. Audi separately plans up to 7,500 German job cuts by the end of 2029 and bars operational layoffs until 2033.
On September 30, Volkswagen terminated company collective agreements covering working hours, allowances and pay at its German sites, ten by IG Metall’s count. Thorsten Gröger, the union’s Lower Saxony chief, called the move a “nasty foul against the workforce”, in a translation from German. Talks start November 24 in Emden, with a second round December 15 in Zwickau.
Trump’s auto tariffs cost Audi about €1.2 billion last year, according to Reuters, and Audi ships all its US-bound cars from Europe or Mexico. Its US sales slid 16% over the first nine months, Bloomberg reported. Döllner would not say whether the plant deal includes tariff relief.
In a July survey, the ifo Institute found that over 60% of German industrial firms feel harmed by US tariffs, and 74% in autos. ifo trade expert Andreas Baur described the industry as “caught between high tariffs and declining exports” to the US.
