End Of The Road For Q8 E-Tron? Audi Brussels Plant To Shut By Feb 28, 2025

Audi's Brussels plant is set to finally shut its doors by end-February 2025. Audi spokesperson Peter D'hoore late last week told Reuters that the company did not have an alternative to shutting down the facility. Additionally, Audi board member Gerd Walker told the publication that the call to shut the plant was "the toughest decision I've ever had to make in my professional career".

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Audi first revealed doubts about the future of the Brussels facility in July 2024 when the brand said it was considering restructuring the plant. The doubts over the plant’s future also put doubts over the future of the Q8 e-tron with the luxury EV segment having witnessed a decline in demand. The facility, which solely rolls out Audi’s Q8 e-tron models has been operating under half capacity since 2023 with demand for Audi’s electric flagship falling year-on-year. In 2023 sales of the Q8 e-tron globally stood at 49,000 units. The plant itself has a capacity of 1.2 lakh units per year with 54,856 units rolling off the production line in 2023.

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Sales of the Q8 have continued to decline over the past two years with plant utilisation well below full capacity.

In 2024, the VW Group reported sales of just 17,900 units of the Audi Q8 e-tron and Sportback in the first half of the year - down from 19,500 units in the same period in 2023. On the production front the Brussels plant rolled out just 13,361 vehicles in the first half of 2024 down from 26,660 units in 2023.

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As per recent reports, Audi considered multiple options for the Brussels facility including an outright sale. Shutting down the facility essentially means the end of the road for the Q8 e-tron with slowing sales making any decision on moving production to another facility unfeasible.

There is yet no official confirmation if the shuttering of the plant will mark the end of the road for the Q8 e-tron though some reports have said that Audi is stopping accepting new orders for the electric SUV in some global markets.

With inputs from Reuters