Audi reported yesterday (22 January) that the company's development of its all-new North American assembly plant in Mexico is on schedule. Audi expects to meet two major milestones this year, with a training centre due to open in the summer and having hired 1,000 employees for the new plant by the end of the year. The company started its traditional dual system of education and training in summer 2013, at the Institute for Professional Training of Volkswagen de Mexico with 64 apprentices started; these will be joined by another 46 in February, while up to 20 will also receive training in Germany. Mattias Rust, head of human resources (HR) for the project, said that the wage-tariff agreements are the best in Mexico, allowing hours worked to be offset. The company expects to hire 3,800 by 2016; so far, more than 30,000 have applied. Audi's board of management member for HR, Thomas Sigi, in a statement, said: "We are highly impressed by the construction progress and the high motivation of our employees at the new site."
Significance: Once online, this plant will be the sole source for Audi's Q5 and upcoming Q6. Although IHS Automotive forecasts production to remain under 150,000 units per annum through 2020, eventually we expect that A4 production will be added. Audi has also already indicated an interest in expanding the plant's capacity from 150,000 to 300,000. This investment in Mexico is indicative of the company's intent to expand production to more regions, and was followed by production announcements for Brazil. IHS Automotive forecasts Audi will exceed 2 million units of production by 2018; at that point, only about 876,000 units are expected to come from Germany. The rest will be built in Belgium, Brazil, China, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Slovakia, and Spain, although Mexico and Brazil will be the only countries added to Audi's list of production locations compared with 2014.
