Audi decides to close its 76-year-old factory in Brussels
Audi has closed the doors of its 76-year-old production facility in Brussels and decided to move production to Mexico.
12punto
German automaker Audi has decided to end production at its 76-year-old factory in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. This move resulted in the production of the luxury electric vehicle model Q8 being shifted to Mexico.
In July of last year, Audi announced that it would enter a restructuring process at the Brussels factory due to a decline in demand. The facility, which has approximately 3,000 employees, entered the closure process because the Volkswagen Group did not allocate a new model. This situation caused unrest among both employees and unions.
Before the factory closed, workers handed over the keys to the completed vehicles. Audi began searching for new investors to sell the facility, but no suitable buyer could be found despite more than 20 meetings.
As a result of negotiations between management and employees, it was decided to pay workers their legal severance pay and bonuses based on their length of service.
THE FUTURE OF THE HISTORIC FACTORY IS UNCERTAIN
The Brussels factory, which began production in 1949, switched to Audi models in 2004 after producing Volkswagen models for a long time. Since 2018, electric Audi e-Tron models had been produced there. The facility, located in the municipality of Forest, spans an area of 54 hectares.
Discussions regarding the future of the factory continue. Previously, the Renault factory in Vilvoorde, the Opel factory in Antwerp, and the Ford factory in Genk had also closed in Belgium.