BELGIUM: On December 14, Audi’s plant in Brussels, Belgium, began producing the Q8 e-Tron and Q8 e-Tron Sportback in series.
The e-Tron SUV, Audi’s first production EV, has been produced at the factory for approximately 160,000 units since 2018.
In 2021, Audi Brussels alone manufactured 43,866 all-electric e-Tron and e-Tron Sportback vehicles, the forerunners of the Q8 models now being marketed under that name.
The Audi Q4 e-Tron, which will also be manufactured at the plant beginning in the second half of 2023 at a rate of approximately 70 units per day, is expected to increase production significantly next year.
Currently, the Q4 e-Tron is made solely at the Volkswagen Gathering plant in Zwickau, Germany.
The Audi Q8 e-Tron and Q8 e-Tron Sportback, the facelifted and renamed versions of the e-Tron and e-Tron Sportback, can be produced at the facility until then.
Audi says the Brussels office is a model for supportability and executing the fate of creation at the organization, the purported “360factory.”
Since the production of the Audi e-Tron began in 2018, the location has been recognised as the first certified carbon-neutral high-volume production plant in the premium car segment in the world.
Since 2012, one of the largest photovoltaic systems in the region has been using green electricity to power the Audi Brussels plant’s premises, which cover 107,000 square metres (26.44 acres).
The system uses renewable energy every year to produce about 9,000 megawatt-hours of power, enough to power approximately 90,000 Audi Q8 e-Tron vehicles and cut carbon emissions by 1,881 tons.
Additionally, the battery cell suppliers are required to produce only renewable energy sources, and eco-friendly freight trains transport the electric traction motors from Györ, Hungary, to Brussels; this diminishes fossil fuel by-products by around 2,600 tonnes every year.
The Audi Q8 e-Tron and Q8 e-Tron Sportback are more efficient, have better aerodynamics, charge faster, and have more battery power.
The larger 115-kWh battery pack increased the WLTP range to 600 kilometres in the Sportback and 582 kilometres in the SUV.
Samsung SDI cells power both e-Tron batteries in the Audi Q8, whereas LG cells power the original e-Tron.
The large battery is likely to have a range rating of over 300 miles, although the EPA has not yet announced it. It is anticipated that the Audi Q8, e-Tron SUV, and Sportback models will arrive at US dealerships in the middle of 2023.
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