- Chinese carmaker Nio is looking into buying Audi’s underused Brussels plant in Belgium, reports say.
- Securing a European production base would enable Nio to avoid a 20 percent tariff on imports.
- The Brussels site is home to the Q8 e-tron, which Audi wants to kill off early due to slow sales.
Chinese automaker Nio is reportedly considering making an offer on Audi’s plant in Brussels, Belgium, as a way to avoid punishing import duties currently imposed on electric vehicles entering the EU and UK from China.
According to a report from the Brussels Times, executives from the Shanghai-based firm recently toured the facility where the Q8 e-tron is manufactured. They are actively preparing a bid for the VW Group executives ahead of a looming deadline on September 23.
Related: Audi Wants To Kill The Q8 E-Tron, May Shut Brussels Plant
The EU concluded its investigation into Chinese state aid given to companies building cars in the Asian country and applied tariffs designed to nix their price advantage when imported to Europe. Though the 20 percent tariff assigned to Nio’s vehicles is far less punishing than the 35 percent applied to SAIC, the company behind MG, it’s high enough to make shifting production to Europe look like a smart move.
The Brussels plant hit the news recently when Audi told its almost 3,000 workers to brace themselves for two rounds of layoffs as it halted production of the electric Q8 SUV and its Sportback brother due to slow sales, and indicated that it might kill the model off early. And the site’s future was revealed to be hanging in the balance when news emerged that no VW Group company was planning to build a new model at Brussels.
Managers told unions this week that Audi had found no economically viable use for the plant, meaning the workforce’s only hope of salvation was for another company to come in and snap up the site that began building VW Beetles in 1954. More than 5,000 people marched through Brussels on Monday in protest at VW’s stance, Reuters reports.
It’s not clear which models Nio might build in Brussels should it get the keys. The firm arrived in Europe in 2021 and currently offers a range of sedans and SUVs in five countries on the continent, the most recent launch being the EL8, a six-seat rival to BMW‘s iX.
