PERRY, Georgia — President Donald Trump announced at a campaign rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday, October 24, that Audi will build an automobile plant in Georgia, as he tries to deliver on his promise to bolster American manufacturing in the final days before the November 3 midterm elections, the Associated Press reported. Speaking in Perry, near Macon in central Georgia, Trump said Audi — the German luxury brand owned by Volkswagen — would commit $4.2 billion in nearby Macon to begin construction on a plant that will produce 200,000 cars a year. Reuters reported the same plan as a $4 billion assembly plant producing 200,000 SUVs annually, and said it would be the first U.S. assembly plant of Volkswagen's premium subsidiary, which currently imports all its vehicles for the U.S. market from Europe or Mexico.
Source: Associated Press via KXL
Trump was joined on stage by Gernot Döllner, the chairman of the board of management at Audi, who said the plant would be producing “our biggest and most premium SUVs,” both news agencies reported. “This is a long-term investment, because we believe in the American market,” Döllner said. Audi, in a news release reported by AP, said the plant — its first in Georgia — would create approximately 4,500 jobs, that construction was scheduled to begin in 2027, and that production would begin in the early 2030s. A U.S. official told Reuters the plant is expected to assemble the Audi Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs, and that Audi also plans to build 25,000 vehicles a year in neighbouring South Carolina at the $2 billion Scout Motors plant under construction in Blythewood, near Columbia.
Source: Reuters via KWSN
Trump credited his tariff policies for the company's decision, AP reported. Reuters noted that last year Trump's tariffs dealt Audi a €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) blow, and that critics say the tariffs have boosted vehicle prices and that trade uncertainty has delayed some automaker investments — a claim the administration disputes through announcements like this one. At the rally, Rick Jackson, the Republican candidate for Georgia governor, thanked Trump and called the plan “the biggest economic deal in Georgia history” — that description is Jackson's, made at a campaign event, and has not been independently verified. Trump was in Georgia to boost Republican candidates, including Rep. Mike Collins, who is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, AP reported.
Source: Associated Press via KXL; Reuters via KWSN
For Georgia workers and suppliers, the timeline matters: no production jobs arrive with this announcement itself. On Audi's own stated schedule, construction begins in 2027 and the first Georgia-built SUVs roll out only in the early 2030s, so the 4,500-job figure is a plan for the plant at capacity, not hiring that starts now. The announcement is a company commitment made publicly at the rally and in Audi's news release; final site work, incentives and construction have not yet begun.