Audi will build its first US factory in Georgia, investing about $4 billion and creating about 4,500 jobs. The decision ends more than a year of wavering over local production as tariffs weigh on a brand that imports every car it sells in America.
The plant will rise on the Middle Georgia Megasite in Peach County, south of Macon, and will have capacity for 200,000 premium SUVs a year, Governor Brian Kemp’s office said on Saturday.
Grading is due to begin in 2027 and construction in 2028, with full production in 2031. Audi itself said construction would begin next year and production would start in the early 2030s.
“We have much greater ambitions for Audi in America, and Georgia will play a central role in making them a reality,” said Gernot Döllner, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG.
“We are planning to bring our biggest and most premium SUVs, and produce them here in Macon,” Döllner said, joining Trump onstage.
President Donald Trump announced the project at a campaign rally in Perry, Georgia, putting the investment at $4.2 billion. “Think of that. 200,000 cars a year. That’s incredible,” Trump said. He also said construction would begin next month, earlier than the schedule given by Audi and the state.
“This will be the single largest investment in U.S. auto industry history, modern history,” he said. “Without tariffs, they wouldn’t be coming in.”
The announcement came nine days before the November 3 midterm elections, in a battleground state where Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff faces Republican Representative Mike Collins.
SUVs built for North America
The state described the output as premium SUVs “tailored to North American customers.” The plant is expected to build the Q7, Q8 and Q9, a US official told Reuters.
Neither Audi nor the state said whether the vehicles would be electric, hybrid or combustion-powered.
“Georgia combines an investment-ready site, skilled workforce, established automotive supplier network and strong logistics infrastructure,” Audi said. “The plant will be designed around Audi’s future manufacturing requirements.” The site has Norfolk Southern rail access and sits under five hours by rail from the ports of Savannah and Brunswick.
Georgia Quick Start, the state’s workforce training program, will build a dedicated training facility with Audi. The release did not disclose any incentive package.
Volkswagen Group will also add 25,000 units of annual capacity at the Scout Motors plant under construction in Blythewood, South Carolina, for a model not yet chosen, Bloomberg reported.
A plan revived
Audi is the only German car brand without a US factory, and building there has been under consideration for at least two decades. The latest debate began in 2025.
A standalone plant was reported as the favored option in mid-2025, and a twin plant with Volkswagen’s factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was considered later that year.
In December 2025, Manager Magazin reported that Döllner had taken the standalone plant out of Audi’s five-year plan “for now” to save costs.
Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume told Handelsblatt in January that the project had stalled because tariffs made a large US investment hard to justify. He has said the group “cannot afford to pay high tariffs and heavily invest in new production capacity at the same time.”
Talks on tariff relief are ongoing, and any change would apply to all carmakers that expand US production, Bloombergreported. Audi declined to comment before the announcement.
Imports and tariffs
Audi has no US production today. It builds its US-market cars in Germany, Mexico and Central and Eastern Europe. The Q5, its best-selling model in America, is built in San José Chiapa, Mexico.
That leaves the brand fully exposed. The Q5 does not comply with the USMCA trade agreement and is hit hard by tariffs, Bloomberg reported. The new Q9 flagship, built in Bratislava, Slovakia, will also face auto tariffs.
BMW and Mercedes-Benz both build SUVs in the US, at Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Audi says tariffs cut its profit by about €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2025 and expects a similar hit this year. It raised prices on several models last year to offset the costs. Across Volkswagen Group, tariffs cost about €2.1 billion ($2.4 billion) in the first nine months of 2025.
US sales down 16%
Audi of America sold 164,942 vehicles last year, down 16% from 2024. The decline has continued this year.
Audi of America delivered 39,751 vehicles in the third quarter, down 15% from 46,758 a year earlier. Deliveries for the first nine months fell 16% to 107,667.
Combustion models grew. Q5 deliveries rose 17% to 11,371 in the third quarter. The Q8 more than doubled to 4,095, the Q7 rose 42% to 6,071 and the A5 rose 53% to 5,315.
Electric sales collapsed after the federal EV tax credit expired at the end of September 2025. Audi’s separately listed electric models totaled 1,103 deliveries in the quarter, compared with 18,071 a year earlier.
Q6 e-tron deliveries fell to 619 from 10,059, and the Q4 e-tron sold eight units. Audi has said the new Q7 and the Q9 will arrive in the fourth quarter.
Profit under pressure
Audi Group’s first-half revenue fell to €29.18 billion ($32.7 billion) from €32.57 billion, mainly because of lower volume in China and the US. Operating profit rose slightly to €1.12 billion ($1.3 billion), for a 3.8% margin.
North American deliveries, excluding Mexico, fell about 17% to 82,187 in the first half, Audi said, citing US tariffs as one factor. Audi’s sales in China, its largest single market, are down 19% year on year. The company expects a 2026 operating margin of 5% to 7%.
Vito Paladino took over as President of Audi of America and head of the Audi North America Region on April 1. He previously led Audi Canada and Volkswagen Group Canada, and succeeded Daniel Weissland, who moved to FAW Audi Sales Company in China.
Building an assembly plant generally takes years, and full production in Georgia is not due until 2031. Until then, every Audi sold in the US will remain an import.
Audi operates 21 production sites in 12 countries, and Georgia would be its first in the US.
