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According to foreign media reports, Volkswagen Group said on July 9 that Audi was considering stopping production of its flagship models Q8 e-tron and Q8 e-tron sportback ahead of time due to a sharp drop in demand for high-end electric cars, or that it would close its plant in Brussels and be forced to lower its profit margin target for this year.

However, no decision has been made on whether to close the factory because it means that a large number of workers have lost their jobs, a move that could be opposed by trade unions. Christophe De Beukelaer, a Belgian MP, said in an interview that the Brussels factory employs about 3000 long-term workers and 500 temporary workers, and that a large number of workers may bear the risk of unemployment in the event of a large-scale restructuring of the factory.

It is understood that the Brussels plant is Audi's first factory specializing in electric cars and is currently producing the Q8 e-tron, which is about to enter the last two to three years of its life cycle. Audi said it had been hit hard by heavy investment in capacity and technology development for electric vehicles, but demand for high-end electric cars in Europe was much lower than expected. So if the Brussels factory has no alternative model or use in the future, it will have to face the risk of closure.

In 2018, Audi officially launched the e-tron car series, followed by the e-tron Sportback the following year, followed by a medium-term change at the end of 2022, and the synchronization was also renamed to Q8 e-tron and Q8 Sportback e-tron according to the electric war plan, while the domestic market continued to continue the naming of e-tron. In the Chinese market, Audi still sells the Audi e-tron on an imported basis, but sales of the model are also low. Audi e-tron sold 1969 vehicles in 2023 and only 304 in the first half of 2024. The report pointed out that a very important factor in the low sales of Audi Q8 e-tron is the increasing number of new cars based on high-end platforms dedicated to pure electric models, while Audi Q8 e-tron is based on Volkswagen MQB architecture.

Previously, there were rumors that the Audi plant in Brussels was expected to be a supplement to the Audi Q4 e-tron, which is currently mainly produced at the Zwickau plant in Germany. However, Audi Q4 e-tron sales are also disappointing, and the Zwickau plant cannot fully utilize its own capacity.

Audi expects revenue of 63 billion euros to 68 billion euros in 2024, operating margins of 8 to 10 percent and cash flow of 2.5 billion to 3.5 billion euros. In addition, Audi plans to launch more than 20 new models between 2024 and 2025, and the last fuel car and plug-in hybrid in 2026.

Despite the recent slowdown in demand for electric vehicles, Gernot D ö llner, Audi's chief executive, said the future of cars would be electric and that Audi would maintain its original 2033 deadline to phase out all fuel vehicles, but the plan could be delayed if demand for electric vehicles failed to boost. In 2024, Audi has already released the Q6 e-tron and Q6 Sportback e-tron, which is expected to be produced by the end of 2024 and is specifically developed for the Chinese market. It is Audi's first mass production model based on the PPE platform.

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