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As feared, bad news arrived at the hastily convened special works council of car factory Audi Brussels on Tuesday evening. Nearly half of the workforce is to leave in the near future, and plant closure is being considered.

In the news: 1,410 jobs out of 3,000 are under threat at Audi Brussels (in Forest), the unions infer from management's announcements at the special works council. The restructuring would take place as early as October. Hundreds more jobs would be threatened next year.

Painful: It follows the Renault procedure, the roadmap for major restructuring that came in place after the brutal closure of another nearby car plant (Renault Vilvoorde in 1997).

The context: Due to the abysmal sales of the Q8 e-tron, the model built at Forest, Audi wants to stop production earlier than planned. That would happen as early as the end of 2025, rather than the end of 2026 which would be the usual timing.

"High cost."

Plus: There is not just a commercial reason. "This comes with long-term structural challenges at the Brussels site," Audi said in an announcement. "The layout of the plant is difficult to change due to its particular location close to the city center. There are also high logistics costs. In general, this leads to high production costs in Brussels compared to other locations."

The big question: So what will happen to the plant from the beginning of 2026?

  • According to the unions, there is no future perspective.
  • In theory, the plant could be assigned another model, or take on a role as a parts factory. But there is no concrete scenario on the table today.

Ominous: Management alludes to a closure.

👉 "It is necessary to develop alternative solutions for the site. This may include ceasing operations if no alternative is found."

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