Journey through the European electric car crisis: The uncertain future of the Audi factory in Brussels

euronews (in English)

Audi's Brussels plant is assembling an 80,000 euro electric SUV, which turns out to be too expensive for Europeans. After 2025, production will probably relocate to Mexico. Workers and unions are not happy.

Transcript

00:00The electric car market in Europe is not taking off, and the industry already seems to be

00:05in crisis.

00:06An example of this is the Audi plant in Brussels, a factory founded in 1948 and renovated with

00:12cutting-edge, low-emission technologies.

00:15After 2025, production of the SUV Q8 e-tron, the electric flagship model, that is on sale

00:22in Belgium for 80,000 euros, will be stopped.

00:26But the unions are on a war footing.

00:28With the loss of 3,000 jobs, plus another 1,000 in related industries, they are preparing

00:33new strikes and criticizing the strategies of the car brands.

00:59Meanwhile, Europe is looking for solutions, including additional taxes on Chinese electric

01:06cars, which are much cheaper than European ones.

01:09On top of that, new investment projects are planned for the industry.

01:28In the first eight months of 2024, just over 902,000 electric cars were purchased in European

01:50Union countries, which represents only 12.6% of the total.

01:55Automobile cars, on the other hand, are still best sellers.

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