Trump announced the construction of a US factory Audi, worth $ 4 billion
The US president said the German automaker’s plant “would never have come into existence without tariffs, prudent regulation and depriving California of the ability to set its own fuel economy standards.”
US President Donald Trump said that the German car manufacturer Audi plans to build a $4 billion plant in Georgia that will produce 200,000 SUVs annually.
The agency notes that the head of the White House is putting pressure on automakers by increasing duties on cars, steel, aluminum and components, seeking to move production to the United States.
Last year, Trump's tariffs caused Audi $1.4 billion in damages as the company imports all cars for the U.S. market from Europe or Mexico.
We plan to bring our largest and most premium SUVs here and produce them here in Macon, Georgia. This is a long-term investment because we believe in the American market, said Audi CEO Gernot Dollner.
Trump, in turn, said that Audi “bringed” the US duties. As Sen. Bernie Moreno noted, the German automaker’s plant “would never have emerged without tariffs, prudent regulation and depriving California of the ability to set its own fuel efficiency standards.”.
According to Audi, the investment will create about 4.5 thousand jobs in the United States. The start of construction of the new plant is scheduled for 2027, and production is scheduled for the early 2030s.
An unnamed U.S. official told Reuters that the factory plans to assemble Audi Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs.
Last April, Trump signed an executive order imposing 25 percent tariffs on auto imports. Tariffs were also introduced for machine components, with duties supplementing existing tariffs.
Automakers that fall under preferential tariff treatment must provide documentation indicating the share of the “American component” in each product. If approved, the 25 percent duty would only apply to the proportion of non-U.S.-made car or component content.
In the same month last year, Nikkei wrote that Japanese automaker Nissan Motor is considering moving some of its production to the United States to avoid new customs duties imposed by the Trump administration.
