Production trailblazer

Established back way back in 1949, the site now known as Audi Brussels has undergone myriad changes in its lifetime, from producing Studebakers in its early days to becoming the centre for e-mobility at Audi in the modern era.

Most recently, a ceremony marked the production of the 8,000,000th vehicle to come off the line at Brussels, an Audi e-tron in metallic Glacier White which is the perfect illustration of just how far the facility has come from its humble origins.

In its recent history, Audi Brussels became an international leader in sustainability when in 2018 the multiple award-winning location was the first Audi factory and the first mass production site in the premium segment worldwide to establish carbon-neutral production. That same year saw Audi Brussels begin producing the brand’s first-ever all-electric vehicle, the Audi e-tron – a carbon-neutral site producing a carbon neutral vehicle very much in keeping with the brand’s sustainability and environmental philosophy. 

More than 3000 employees work at the site working on the production of the Audi e-tron, e-tron Sportback, e-tron S, and e-tron S Sportback models, with more than 115,000 of these vehicles produced to date. 

The evolution of the Brussels site shows the quantum shift in automotive trends and manufacturing over its more than 70 years of operation, first producing Studebakers until 1965 when Volkswagen took over the plant and began manufacturing its VW Beetle and the VW Transporter models. Around 1000 Porsche 356 Cabriolets were also built in the Brussels suburb in the early 1960s and in 1970, Volkswagen took over the factory completely, with some four million VW Golf models produced in the early 1980s.

In 2007, ownership of the factory passed to AUDI AG which is where the production of the VW Polo and Audi A3 models initially took place and then the production of the Audi A1 as well as other Audi models.

Constant upgrading and modernising of facilities and practices led to the complete transformation of Audi Brussels into the extraordinary ‘future facility’ it is today, along the way making it a leader in sustainable manufacture and an integral part of Audi’s Mission:Zero program. 

“For us at Audi, economic success is inseparable from environmental protection. Premium mobility doesn’t only mean that our products meet the highest standards – it also means that they are consistently made in a sustainable way,” says Peter Kössler, Board Member for Production and Logistics at Audi.

The Audi Brussels facility is the living embodiment of that philosophy and an example of how other Audi facilities worldwide will operate in the future. 

“The consistent shift in our portfolio toward electromobility is the greatest challenge in the company’s history,” says Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AUDI AG

“In electromobility, Brussels is a trailblazer and a model. In the transformation of other locations, we are benefiting from the experiences gained here in Brussels.”

Of course the site will continue to produce models from the Audi e-tron family, building on the impressive total of eight million vehicles to be born in Brussels. And as for the 8,000,000th vehicle – the Glacier White e-tron which wracked up the production milestone – it will ultimately become part of an historical car collection in the Audi tradition. But until then, it will remain at the Audi Brussels site as an example of how far vehicle production and mobility have come at the site and pointing the way to where they are heading.