Audi CEO: planning electric car factory in U.S. due to IRA

BERLIN – German carmaker Audi is planning an electric car factory in the United States to take advantage of the subsidies offered through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Chief Executive Markus Duesmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

“We don’t have a factory in the U.S. yet. With the American government’s Inflation Reduction Act, building a U.S. plant for electric cars has of course become highly attractive,” he told the newspaper in an interview, adding that it was open whether Audi would build its own plant or one within parent company Volkswagen Group.

“In future, the Volkswagen Group will probably also build more cars for the U.S. market there than before,” he said.

Companies across North America and Europe have in recent months cheered the Biden Administration’s $430 billion IRA that includes major provisions to cut carbon emission, boost domestic production and manufacturing.

The act, signed into a law late last year by President Joe Biden, has also sparked a reaction from the European Union because of fears that it could lure businesses away from the bloc with its generous tax breaks.