- There’s no doubt that the Inflation Reduction Act is driving massive changes in the U.S. electric vehicle market, both for buyers who buy them and companies that make them.
- No decisions have been announced, but the new law makes building EVs in America “very attractive,” Audi CEO Markus Duesmann said late last week.
- If Audi does build EVs here, it will be just the latest in a long line of companies. Following the signing of the IRA last August, more than $28 billion in EV manufacturing investments were announced for the US.
The IRA’s hits just keep on coming.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed into law last August, has shaken up the electric vehicle market in the US. Friday that it is evaluating building a new EV factory in the US
“The IRA made building an American plant for electric cars very attractive,” Audi CEO Markus Duesmann told the German newspaper. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper. Duesmann said that if Audi does build EVs here, it will likely be at a joint plant with the Volkswagen Group, according to Reuters. The Washington Post quotes Duesmann as saying: “Decisions have not been made yet, but the VW Group will probably make more cars there. [in the U.S.] in the future for the US market.”
While Volkswagen has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Audi currently has no plants in the US, and the automaker’s e-tron EVs are built in Brussels, Belgium. The Audi production facility closest to the US is in San Jose Chiapa, Mexico, where Audi builds the Q5. To qualify for some of the modified tax credits outlined in the IRA, EVs increasingly must be assembled in the US. Other recent federal legislation, notably the CHIPS and Science Act, also encourages companies to make EV components, such as batteries and silicon chips, in the US
The IRA’s details change as the years go by, but the overall trend has already prompted more than $28 billion in EV manufacturing investment announcements between the signing of the law in August and the end of 2022, according to the Electric Vehicle Association. Figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show investment in U.S. factories of all types also rising, from about $70 to $75 billion per quarter in 2020 to $88–$105 billion per quarter in 2022. Washington Post noticed. An analyst the paper spoke to said the industry expects these numbers to continue to rise in the coming years as more incentives come online.
Audi has ambitious electrification plans for its US fleet. Audi of America has said that one-third of its portfolio will be electrified by 2025. Audi also said it would invest about $19 billion to develop and manufacture new hybrid and electric vehicles. A new US plant would fit well with those plans.
Contributing Editor
Sebastian Blanco has been writing about electric vehicles, hybrids and hydrogen cars since 2006. His articles and car reviews appeared in the New York Times, Automotive News, Reuters, SAE, Autoblog, InsideEVs, Trucks.com, Car Talk and other outlets. His first green car media event was the launch of the Tesla Roadster, and since then he has followed the shift away from petrol-powered vehicles and discovered the new technology’s importance not only to the car industry, but to the world as a whole. . Throw in the recent shift to autonomous vehicles, and there are more interesting changes happening now than most people can wrap their heads around. You can find him on Twitter or, on good days, behind the wheel of a new EV.
