The News
Audi plans to build its first US vehicle plant on the Middle Georgia Mega Site near Macon, investing about $4 billion to make up to 200,000 premium SUVs a year, the company said. President Donald Trump announced the plant at a rally in Perry, Georgia, with Audi CEO Gernot Döllner on stage.
“We are planning to bring our biggest and most premium SUVs and produce them here in Macon,” Döllner said at the rally, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The plant is planned to employ about 4,500 people, Audi said.
The details
The official investment is smaller than the figure from the stage, and the official schedule runs longer. Trump put the investment at $4.2 billion and said the plant could “one day” build 200,000 cars a year. Audi and the state both say about $4 billion.
Audi tied the plant to trade risk, saying it will reduce the company’s “exposure to trade and currency risks.” Audi has supplied the US entirely from plants in Europe and Mexico.
US tariffs cut Audi’s 2025 operating profit by 1.2 billion euros, the company said in its annual results.
The plant would make North America Audi’s third production base after Europe and China, the company said.
The final decision still needs approval from Volkswagen’s governing bodies, Euronews reported, citing the IG Metall union.
The state sold the site on its freight connections. Georgia bought it in 2022 and lined up rail service before it had a tenant.
Norfolk Southern serves the north side of the site, and the ports of Savannah and Brunswick are each under five hours away by rail. Norfolk Southern agreed to serve the site when the state bought it, Progressive Railroading reported.
The Peach County site sits about five miles west of Interstate 75. It was about 1,100 acres when the state bought it and can grow to about 2,400 acres, state officials told the AJC.
Audi has said little so far about who will supply it. Its release says it aims to “develop a strong local supplier network” and cites Georgia’s “established automotive supplier network,” but names no suppliers.
The closest comparison is Hyundai’s Metaplant near Savannah. By fall 2023 it had drawn 11 supplier plants in Georgia worth more than $2 billion, Manufacturing Dive reported, citing Gov. Brian Kemp.
What’s next
The state plans grading in 2027, construction in 2028 and full production of 200,000 vehicles a year in 2031. Audi’s release has construction starting a year earlier.
(Photo: Audi)
