Nio looking to buy Audi plant in Belgium to avoid EU tariffs – Q8 e-tron to be discontinued amid slow sales
The punitive tariffs Europe has slapped on Chinese electric vehicles have caused carmakers from the Middle Kingdom to find new ways to lessen their impact. One of those ways is building cars in the Continent itself, with Nio eyeing the purchase of the troubled Audi Brussels plant in Forest, Belgium, according to The Brussels Times, citing De Tijd.
Nio has reportedly sent a delegation to visit the plant in recent weeks and is now considering an offer, which it must submit to the Volkswagen Group by next Monday. The company has since denied it has any interest in the plant, however, with CEO William Li recently telling the media it “can’t afford” a factory Audi itself can’t keep running and called the rumours “groundless,” per CnEVPost.
Audi has been weighing up its options for the factory since July, when it announced it was restructuring the facility in the wake of slowing demand for premium EVs. The sole vehicle built there, the Q8 e-tron, has experienced a sharp decline in sales, hastened by the influx of new Audi models built on the more advanced Premium Platform Electric (PPE).
Making things worse is the fact that the plant is squeezed within a residential area near the city centre, making any expansion or change in layout difficult. This, together with high labour and logistics costs, has led to higher production costs compared to other Audi production sites. All these challenges have caused Ingolstadt to consider ending production of the Q8 e-tron ahead of schedule.
Audi said in July that a decision had yet to be made, but developments since then have made it clear that the plant’s days were numbered. Just this month, its management told employees VW had no plans to build any new models there in the coming years, with the Q8 e-tron set to be killed off next year. It left the door open for “alternative uses,” but at a works council meeting on Tuesday it was revealed that none had been found, meaning that a sale was the only way for Audi Brussels to escape closure and the loss of all 2,600 jobs.
Enter Nio, which landed in the European market in 2021 but has yet to see sales take off. Buying the factory could provide a foothold for the loss-making carmaker, especially as the European Union continues to persevere with its tariffs, ostensibly implemented to punish China for offering “unfair” incentives to its own companies. Nio is currently taxed at a rate of 20.7%, on top of the usual 10% import tariff for all EVs.
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