President Donald Trump is set to announce in Georgia on Saturday that Audi, the premium brand of Germany's Volkswagen, will build a new assembly plant in Georgia that will make 200,000 SUVs a year, according to a government official. The plant, planned near Macon, is expected to assemble the Audi Q7, Q8 and Q9 — models now built in Europe.
Audi is also expected to announce plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year in South Carolina, assembled at the $2 billion plant that Volkswagen's off-road brand Scout Motors is building in Blythewood. Some of the vehicles made in America would be exported, the official said.
The announcement is the latest result of Trump's pressure on foreign automakers: he has urged them to move production into the United States and has raised tariffs on foreign-made cars and trucks, and on steel, aluminum and parts. Volkswagen is hopeful the Georgia plant will bring relief from tariffs that have hit its profits. A gold Audi was parked outside Trump's rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday. Audi declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For American workers it means factory jobs in Georgia and South Carolina that would otherwise have stayed in Europe — and it lands in a state with competitive Senate and governor races, where Trump is arguing his tariffs are bringing industry and work back to Americans.
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