Concerns for the future of the Audi factory in Brussels

Renault in 1997, Volkswagen (VW) in 2006, Opel in 2010, Ford in 2014: the list of car assembly plant closures and the thousands of job losses they have caused is already long in Belgium. Public authorities and unions now fear that Audi’s name will have to be extended, with an apparent threat looming over its Forest-Brussels division.

The plant, which employs 3,000 people, reopened on April 8, after a two-week shutdown with the announcement of layoffs for about 400 temporary workers. A subcontractor announced the layoffs of 70 people. 2006, when Volkswagen announced the end of Golf production in Forest, transferred to two sites in Germany. Three thousand two hundred jobs would be lost, but the factory restarted in 2007 under the banner of Audi, which entrusted the production of its A1.

In 2018, the production of this successful model was transferred to Spain, but an offer from the Belgian government resulted in Forest being entrusted with the production of the electric car. Finally it will be the Q8 e-Tron, a luxury SUV.

Mexico and China

Expensive (its price varies between 85,000 and 125,000 euros), achieving less success in Europe than in China and the United States and due to be renewed in 2026, this luxury car will be manufactured in Mexico in the future, and perhaps also in China. Losing the only model it produces, the Belgian plant is threatened, at best by restructuring, at worst by closure, which would leave Volvo as the only assembly brand still in the kingdom: its Ghent plant, with its 6,500 employees, was entrusted with the production of the new small SUV EX30 , although Volvo recently established a new division in Slovakia.

Proof of the importance of the Audi-Forest file for public authorities: the Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, took it personally and brought together, on Friday April 12, the management of the factory, the head of the German strategy of the brand, together with members of his government and the Brussels, Flemish and Walloon regions. Unions were not invited, Audi’s German management required members to sign a confidentiality clause.

By creating his “task force”, Mr. De Croo hopes to ensure the future for the factory and, perhaps, ensure that it is entrusted with a new model, either from Audi or another brand of the group (VW, Seat, Cupra , Skoda, Porsche, etc.). In 2023, the Brussels plant had hoped to produce part of the Audi Q4 e-Tron, but the German management had ended this hope: the sale of other electric models of the group remained stagnant, which allowed the factory of the German company from Zwickau, in Saxony, to do this manufacture alone.

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