Trump announces Audi will build $4 billion SUV plant in Georgia

US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Audi plans to build a $4 billion assembly plant in Georgia that will produce 200,000 SUVs a year, in the carmaker’s first US assembly plant (Reuters).

Trump made the announcement at a rally in Perry, near Macon in central Georgia. Audi said the investment will create approximately 4,500 jobs, with construction scheduled to begin next year and production starting in the early 2030s.

“We are planning to bring our biggest and most premium SUVs, and produce them here in Macon, Georgia,” Audi chief executive Gernot Doellner said at the event. “This is a long-term investment because we believe in the American market.” The plant is expected to assemble the Audi Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs, a US official told Reuters.

The announcement is not yet a final deal: a final decision on the investment would have to be taken by Volkswagen’s supervisory board, said Christiane Benner, head of the IG Metall union and Volkswagen’s deputy supervisory board chair.

Audi currently imports all the vehicles it sells in the US from Europe or Mexico, and last year Trump’s tariffs cost the company €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion). Its global sales fell 7% in the first half of 2026, while US sales are down 16% this year.

Audi also plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year at Volkswagen’s $2 billion Scout Motors plant under construction in Blythewood, South Carolina, a US official told Reuters. Republican Senator Bernie Moreno said late on Saturday that the Georgia plant “would never have happened without tariffs”, while critics say tariffs have boosted vehicle prices and delayed some carmaker investments.