The Audi Q8 e-tron has started production at Audi’s Brussels plant (formerly a VW plant) that specialises in Audi electric vehicles. Around 160,000 units of Audi’s first electric model made at the plant – the e-tron – have been delivered since 2018.
Audi board member for Production and Logistics Gerd Walker summarised the importance of the brand’s new top model: “With its increased efficiency and range, as well as its sharpened design, the new Audi Q8 e-tron is a strong statement for electromobility.”
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Walker also highlighted the role of the Brussels site as a pioneer for sustainable production: “Brussels has done valuable pioneering work. We are learning from our experience of having delivered around 160,000 vehicles worldwide. As the next step, we will leverage this experience to ramp up battery production in Ingolstadt.”
Audi said the battery assembly facility in Brussels is playing a ground-breaking role for the entire VW Group.
“The path Audi is taking conserves resources and accelerates our transformation,” Walker says.
The Audi Q8 e-tron will reach customers in Europe and the United States as a ‘certified net carbon-neutral’ car.
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By GlobalDataFrom 2025, production at all Audi plants will be carbon neutral as part of the company-wide environmental program Mission:Zero.
Since production of the Audi e-tron began, the Belgium plant has been recognized as the world’s first certified carbon-neutral high-volume production plant in the premium segment. The site switched to green power back in 2012. Among other things, Audi Brussels installed one of the region’s largest photovoltaic systems on the plant premises, covering 107,000 square meters. The system generates around 9,000-megawatt hours of power from sustainable energy every year. That’s enough to charge some 90,000 Audi Q8 e-tron units and reduce carbon emissions by 1,881 tons.
The companies that supply the battery cells are obliged to use only renewable energy sources for production. The electric traction motors for production are transported from Hungary to Brussels by green freight. Since May 2022, Audi has been using rail transport on the approximately 1,300-kilometer route, a decision that reduces carbon emissions by around 2,600 tons annually.
Audi AG has owned the Belgium site since 2007. After acquiring it, Audi Brussels converted the plant to produce the Audi A1, a new addition to the Audi model range at the time. 2018 saw the birth of the Audi e-tron.
In 2021, Audi Brussels produced 43,866 all-electric cars. Starting in the second half of 2023, more than 3,000 employees will also make the Audi Q4 e-tron in Brussels.
