Audi’s top management is going to decide in the next year or two if they should build batteries for its electric-car program in its high-cost German home market, its chief executive stated.
Audi’s labor leaders have prompted management to invest in battery-cell technology and to assemble powerpacks at the two major factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, where R&D operations and two thirds of the 91,000 workforce are based.
“We have not yet taken a decision on this matter,” Chief Executive Rupert Stadler informed journalists following the brand’s annual news conference on Thursday.
Audi has set up battery-making facilities in Brussels where the automaker will start building the all-electric e-tron sport-utility vehicle this year.
Audi has selected the small plant, with a staff of 2,700 people, as a main factory for electric mobility under the parent Volkswagen group.
“It’s also a question of space,” Stadler stated. “Here (in Germany) it is obviously a bit more complex. We will have to decide this in the next one to two years,” he added.
