Audi Confirms Its First U.S. Factory, in Georgia

Audi has confirmed that it will build its first factory in the United States, in Georgia, The Associated Press reported. The plan was announced on Saturday, October 24, at a rally held by President Donald Trump in Perry, Georgia, where Audi chief executive Gernot Döllner joined the president on stage. Audi confirmed the project the same day in a news release.

The factory is planned for the Middle Georgia Megasite in Peach County, near Macon. On the outline of the project, the accounts agree: the plant is expected to create about 4,500 jobs and to be built with capacity to produce up to 200,000 premium SUVs a year. It would be the German automaker’s first assembly plant on American soil. On two of the central facts of the announcement — what the factory will cost, and when it will be built — the accounts given on Saturday do not match, and both versions are set out below.

Two Price Tags

President Trump put the size of Audi’s investment at $4.2 billion, The Associated Press and Fox Business reported. Audi’s own news release and the office of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp put the figure at about $4 billion. The two figures were both attached to the same announcement on the same day: $4.2 billion as stated by the president at the rally, and about $4 billion as stated by the company and the governor’s office in writing.

Two Timelines

The schedules differ by more than the money. Trump said construction could begin “next month,” The Wall Street Journal reported. Audi says construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with production starting in the early 2030s. The state of Georgia’s timeline runs in steps: grading in 2027, construction in 2028, and full production in 2031, The Associated Press reported. On the company’s and the state’s accounts, then, the first SUVs built at the Peach County site are years away under any version of the schedule — and under the president’s account, the first construction is weeks away.

Not The State’s Biggest Deal

Georgia is not new to factories of this size. The state’s economic development department gives the title of the state’s largest-ever deal not to the Audi project but to Hyundai’s Metaplant near Savannah, at $7.59 billion. The Audi plant, at either the president’s figure or the company’s, stands below that mark. What it adds is a first: an Audi factory in the United States, making premium SUVs in Peach County, with the number of jobs — about 4,500 — and the planned capacity — up to 200,000 vehicles a year — agreed on every account of Saturday’s announcement.

Sources: The Associated Press; The Wall Street Journal; Fox Business; Audi; the office of Governor Brian Kemp.