Audi Georgia plant to build 200,000 SUVs a year

President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Audi will build a $4 billion assembly plant in Georgia, the German carmaker's first factory in the United States. The Audi Georgia plant will produce 200,000 SUVs a year near Macon, in central Georgia, and Audi said the investment will create about 4,500 jobs.

Trump made the announcement at a rally in Perry, near Macon, as he campaigned ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. Audi chief executive Gernot Doellner joined him at the event and said the company plans to build its largest and most premium SUVs at the site. "We are planning to bring our biggest and most premium SUVs, and produce them here in Macon, Georgia," Doellner said. "This is a long-term investment because we believe in the American market."

Construction is scheduled to begin next year, with production starting in the early 2030s, Audi said. A US official told Reuters the Audi Georgia plant is expected to assemble the Audi Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs. Audi also plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year in neighbouring South Carolina, the official said, at a $2 billion plant of Volkswagen's off-road brand Scout Motors that is under construction in Blythewood, near Columbia. Some of the vehicles now built in Europe would be exported, the official added.

Why the Audi Georgia plant comes now

Audi imports every vehicle it sells in the United States from Europe or Mexico, and it has no US assembly plant today. Last year, tariffs imposed by Trump cost Audi 1.2 billion euros, about $1.4 billion, Reuters reported. Trump has pressed carmakers to move production to the United States and has raised auto tariffs on vehicles, steel, aluminum and parts.

The Audi Georgia plant gives the company a way to reduce that tariff bill by building its largest models inside the United States rather than shipping them in. Trump is eager to make the case that his auto tariffs are helping the US economy, Reuters reported. Georgia has competitive election races for US Senate and governor, and the announcement came as Trump sought to convince Americans to back Republicans in the midterm elections.

Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio wrote on X after the announcement that the Georgia plant "would never have happened without tariffs." Critics of the auto tariffs say they have pushed up vehicle prices and that trade uncertainty has delayed some carmaker investments.

What the Audi Georgia plant will build

The Audi SUVs planned for Macon are the brand's largest models, and the plant is expected to assemble the Q7, Q8 and Q9. Those Audi SUVs now come from plants in Europe or Mexico, so moving them to Georgia shifts a large part of Audi's US supply inside the country. The Audi Georgia plant will produce 200,000 SUVs a year once it is running, a scale that puts it among the larger single-brand assembly sites in the southern United States.

Audi's US sales have been under pressure. Its global sales fell 7% in the first half of 2026, while its US sales declined 16% this year, according to a TradingView report on the announcement. Its parent company, Volkswagen, lowered its full-year operating return on sales forecast to no more than 1% in early October, down from an earlier forecast of 4% to 5.5%, Kinzey Capital Management said in a commentary. A US plant does not fix weak demand on its own, but it removes a tariff cost that has weighed on every Audi sold in America.

What the Audi Georgia plant means for Georgia jobs

Audi said the investment in the Audi Georgia plant will create approximately 4,500 jobs at the Macon site. Georgia jobs in auto manufacturing have grown as carmakers and suppliers expanded across the south, and a plant of this size adds a large employer to the Macon area. The construction phase comes first, with building work scheduled to begin next year, and hiring will follow as production approaches in the early 2030s.

For Georgia jobs, the timing matters as much as the number. Production is still years away, so the 4,500 roles will arrive gradually rather than all at once. The Audi Georgia plant also sits alongside the Scout Motors site in South Carolina, where Audi plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year. Audi also plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year at that Scout Motors plant in Blythewood, South Carolina, according to the US official who spoke to Reuters.