Batteries for E-Audis: Assembly plant to be built in Mexico

The German car manufacturer Audi has started construction of the first assembly hall for batteries for electric cars at its San José Chiapa plant in the Mexican state of Puebla. This has been reported by various Mexican media. The plant will be the Audi Group's first battery factory outside Germany. It is an important step in Audi's efforts to expand electric mobility. The company has not yet provided any information on the level of investment or the production capacity of the new plant.

The factory will cover an area of 33,600 square meters plus a 5,600 square meter penthouse and is to be built in a sustainable manner. During the day, the building will only be illuminated by sunlight, writes the weekly newspaper Newsweek. Heat recovery is to keep the facility at optimum temperatures so that no gas needs to be used for heating.

The battery production facility at Audi México will employ 350 people. "This team will focus on production and administrative tasks, quality assurance, analysis and planning, as well as monitoring the production process," the Mexican business newspaper El Financiero quotes from an Audi communiqué. In June, Audi México announced that it would invest one billion euros in its plant in the state of Puebla in order to produce vehicles with e-tron technology, i.e. hybrid and electric vehicles.

Mexico as an important location for car manufacturers

Mexico, and Puebla in particular, is an important location for German car manufacturers. The Volkswagen Group operates one of its largest factories in the world here with around 10,000 employees; more than 5,000 people work at the Audi plant in San José Chiapa. Numerous international car manufacturers have set up assembly plants in Mexico to assemble vehicles there and then sell them duty-free across the border to the USA. Together with the USA and Canada, Mexico is part of the North American free trade agreement USMCA (successor to NAFTA), which is being called into question by the newly elected US President Donald Trump.

Trump is threatening neighboring countries Canada and Mexico with import duties of 25 percent if they do not take action against migrants and drug smuggling. Such a move would also affect German car manufacturers. BMW wants to assemble electric vehicles of the New Class at its plant in San Luis Potosí in northern Mexico from 2027. In order to integrate the plant into BMW's global network for electromobility, 800 million euros are to be invested over the next few years.

However, the real target of Trump's threat is likely to be Chinese car companies that are setting up in Mexico in order to target the US market from there. Chinese commercial vehicle giant Dongfeng is planning to open a new plant in Mexico by 2025, while BYD, the world's largest manufacturer of electric cars, is pressing ahead with its plans to open a factory in Mexico. In contrast, Tesla boss and Trump friend Elon Musk announced in the summer that he was halting the construction of the planned Tesla Gigafactory in northern Mexico. According to Musk, he wants to decide after the presidential elections in the USA whether the project will be continued. The decision is still pending.

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