Audi‘s first US factory will be built about 75 miles from the plant Rivian is constructing in Georgia, putting two companies already tied together by a Volkswagen Group software venture a little over two hours apart by road.
Audi announced on Saturday that it would invest about $4 billion in a plant on the Middle Georgia Megasite in Peach County, south of Macon. The EV maker Rivian is building its $5 billion factory at Stanton Springs North, east of Atlanta, on the border of Walton and Morgan counties.
The sites are about 75 miles apart in a straight line. By road, the trip is about 95 miles, or approximately two hours.
Two megasites
Audi’s plant is designed for annual capacity of up to 200,000 vehicles and about 4,500 jobs. It will build premium SUVs for North American customers. A US official told Reuters the plant is expected to build the Q7, Q8 and Q9.
The site covers about 1,500 acres, with roughly 2.5 miles of frontage on Georgia Highway 96, about 5 miles west of I-75, according to the regional development authority.
A Norfolk Southern rail line runs along its north and west sides, and Georgia’s ports in Savannah and Brunswick are less than five hours away by rail, Governor Brian Kemp’s office said.
Rivian’s site covers just under 2,000 acres beside I-20, about an hour east of Atlanta. The plant is planned for annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles and will build the R2, R3 and R3X, as well as the robotaxi Rivian is developing with Uber, the company has said.
Its campus will include a museum, overnight cabins, campsites and an off-road test track, according to site plans Rivian showed in August.
Different stages
Rivian’s plant is due to start production years before Audi’s.
Drone footage recorded on September 21 showed two excavations that local officials identified as the start of pits for the plant’s stamping presses, along with graded building pads and an electrical substation.
Rivian is “currently working on the stamping press foundation and working on the foundations in Georgia,” Vice President of Investor Relations Chip Newcom said on September 29. Production is due to start in late 2028.
Audi said construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with production planned for the early 2030s. The state’s timeline puts grading in 2027, construction in 2028 and full production in 2031. Volkswagen’s supervisory board still has to approve the investment.
Linked through VW
The two companies have no direct agreement. Their link is Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies, or RV Tech, a joint venture worth up to $5.8 billion that develops a zonal electrical architecture and software for both groups.
Within that venture, Audi is the brand set to carry the most Rivian technology. “Set to arrive as early as 2028 is the first Audi built on the new E/E architecture from RV Tech,” Gernot Döllner, Chief Executive Officer of AUDI AG, said in March.
Audi will be the first Volkswagen Group brand to launch a car with the complete Rivian-developed stack, and Audi reference vehicles took part in the venture’s winter testing this year. Rivian uses the same architecture in the R2, the first model its Georgia plant will build.
Volkswagen is also Rivian’s largest shareholder, with 15.9% since May. This month it lent Rivian $1 billion, secured by Rivian’s half of the venture.
What has not been said
Neither company has said whether the SUVs Audi plans to build in Georgia will use the RV Tech architecture. Döllner has said the technology will debut in two all-new models and roll out step by step across the lineup, without naming them.
Neither company has announced any cooperation between the two sites on suppliers, logistics or workforce training. Governor Kemp’s office said Georgia Quick Start, the state’s training program, will build a dedicated training facility with Audi.
Rivian Founder and Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said last week that the Volkswagen relationship “will continue to expand and grow”. He was speaking about software and AI, not manufacturing.
Rivian denied plans to build vehicles with Volkswagen in 2024.
A wider VW footprint
The Audi plant extends Volkswagen Group’s manufacturing presence in the region. Volkswagen builds cars in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and its Scout Motors brand is building a plant in Blythewood, South Carolina.
A US official told Reuters that Audi also plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year at the Scout plant. Scout reference vehicles also took part in the RV Tech winter testing.
Georgia is already home to Hyundai Motor Group’s Metaplant in Ellabell, near Savannah, which began production in October 2024.
