Audi’s unions asks top management to designate electric model for major German plant

Labor leaders at Volkswagen’s Audi brand have asked top management to designate production of an all-electric model to the automaker’s major plant in Germany, concerned they may lose as electric vehicles gain in significance.

Audi will next year start constructing its very first mass-produced electrical model, the e-tron quattro sport-utility vehicle, at a plant located in Brussels, together with batteries that will likewise be used in other Volkswagen group electric vehicles (EVs).

Volkswagen’s main profit factor plans to launch three all-electric models by 2020 and workers at Audi’s major plant in Ingolstadt don’t want to be left in the race for production.

“Our core factory need to be prepared further for the future,” Audi’s top labor representative, Peter Mosch, informed a gathering of 7,000 employees on Wednesday at the Ingolstadt plant which uses about 43,000 individuals.

“None of our associates must fall off the conveyer belt as we move into the future,” deputy works council chief Max Waecker stated.

Chief Executive Rupert Stadler has said before that Audi’s smaller sized German plant in Neckarsulm where 16,000 employees assemble the higher-end A6, A7 and A8 designs, will begin making battery-only vehicles from about 2020.

Peter Mosch has asked top management to give specific information regarding how the growing shift to electric cars and digital services will impact work at Audi, which has 88,000 workers worldwide.