On Friday, the last e-tron rolled off the assembly line at Audi's factory in Belgium as scheduled. 3,000 employees have been laid off, and the factory will not reopen despite protests.
On Friday this week, Audi closed its factory in Belgium. At least the last car from the brand left the assembly line. This means that 3,000 employees have been laid off.
The factory, which has been spitting cars onto the roads for more than 70 years, began producing electric cars in 2018. But it has not been a success.
Audi itself says it is closing down because fewer people are specifically demanding electric cars. Especially the expensive models, such as the Q8 e-tron, which was built in Belgium, are in free fall.
The plant outside Brussels has long struggled with very high costs, which Audi initially tried to control by laying off 371 employees at the factory.
But this has not been able to keep the business behind the factory running, and as demand and the European car market lost even more steam during 2024, a closure gradually seemed like the only solution.
Electric cars accounted for 15 percent of new registrations across Europe in January, well short of this year's target of 25 percent.
According to Sigrid de Vries from the car manufacturers' trade association ACEA, members are currently experiencing a significant drop in demand. So it's not just Audi that's in trouble.
But the now former employees in Brussels have been expressing their dissatisfaction for several months and criticizing Audi for not having done enough for either them or the local area. Jan Baetens from the employees' union has openly criticized the closure in the media.
– People are being pressured to buy electric cars, but the infrastructure is not there yet, says Jan Baetens.
Audi is now expected to start dismantling the equipment at the factory, which will require a few hundred employees.
Engineer Florin Tautu, who came to the factory from Romania in 2011, tells Belgian media that it has been good to work at the factory and that it is regrettable that Audi is now leaving.
A job fair with 4,000 vacancies is planned for April. But that doesn't guarantee that all former Audi employees will find new jobs.
An anonymous leader expresses sympathy for those who have financial obligations.
"I'm hopeful, but I feel for those who have mortgages to pay or children at university," an anonymous factory manager told the Daily Mail .
The factory in Belgium is closing at a time when the European car market is under pressure from a demand that cannot keep up with the investments that have been made in the development of electric cars in general.
Audi isn't the only one closing factories and laying off people. Volkswagen has announced that it will be getting rid of three factories in Germany. This means even more layoffs.
And at its sister brand in the Czech Republic, Skoda, management announces that due to very high costs for the development of electric cars, 8,000 positions will be cut.
