PERRY: Audi intends to construct a $4 billion assembly facility in Georgia capable of producing 200,000 SUVs annually, President Donald Trump said Saturday, using the announcement at a central Georgia rally to make his pitch to voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The Volkswagen-owned luxury brand would build its first U.S. assembly plant near Macon, the site Trump selected for the rally. The president has leaned on automakers to shift production to the United States and has imposed tariffs on vehicles, steel, aluminum and parts.
Those tariffs cost Audi 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) last year, since the company imports every vehicle it sells in the U.S. from Europe or Mexico.
Georgia is hosting competitive contests for both U.S. Senate and governor. Trump is pressing the argument that his auto tariffs are strengthening the U.S. economy, while critics contend they have driven up vehicle prices and that uncertainty over trade has caused some automakers to hold back investments.
"We are planning to bring our biggest and most premium SUVs, and produce them here in Macon, Georgia," Audi CEO Gernot Doellner told the crowd. "This is a long-term investment because we believe in the American market."
According to Audi, the project will generate roughly 4,500 jobs, with construction slated to begin next year and production expected to start in the early 2030s.
A U.S. official told Reuters the plant will assemble the Audi Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs.
The same official said Audi also plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year in neighboring South Carolina, some of which would be exported. Those vehicles would be assembled at a $2 billion plant being built by VW's off-road brand Scout Motors in Blythewood, near Columbia.
Since Trump took office last year, U.S. vehicle and parts employment has declined, and his cuts to government electric vehicle incentives have sharply reduced domestic EV and battery production.
A gold Audi bearing manufacturer plates sat parked outside the rally site.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, said Saturday night that "with this investment, Audi will build all of their SUVs exclusively in the U.S." The plant, he said, "would never have happened without tariffs, without common sense regulations and without eliminating California's ability to regulate fuel economy standards."
Audi's sales have declined two years running and dropped 7% in the first half of 2026, squeezed by intense competition in China and U.S. tariffs. U.S. sales are off 16% this year.
The company's Neckarsulm plant in southwest Germany is among four German Volkswagen factories that could close after 2030.
Toyota said in July it would invest $3.6 billion to add a 2.5-million-square-foot truck assembly line at its San Antonio campus and move some truck production there from Mexico, with completion targeted for 2030 and 2,000 jobs created.
Honda Motor is weighing a U.S. assembly plant but has cautioned it may not proceed unless the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is extended. Hyundai said last year that certainty about USMCA "would immediately unlock over $20 billion in new American investments."
