The Republican party under Trump is trying to retain control of both houses of Congress, but it is polling poorly<\/a> as it struggles with higher fuel prices caused by Trump\u2019s war on Iran<\/a>, as well as his trade war against some of the US\u2019s biggest trading partners.<\/p>\n Trump has long tried to convince voters that his tariffs are helping to increase the number of manufacturing jobs in the US, and has seized on any new factory investments. However, US vehicle and parts employment has fallen since Trump took office last year.<\/p>\n Audi, Volkswagen\u2019s most important premium brand, has suffered from Trump\u2019s 15% tariffs on imports<\/a> from the EU as well as the president\u2019s efforts to cut sales of battery electric vehicles in favour of petrol cars.<\/p>\n It said it aims to build 200,000 SUVs at the new US factory, creating 4,500 jobs. The factory will build the Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUVs, shifting some production from Bratislava in Slovakia.<\/p>\n Volkswagen has said Trump\u2019s tariffs cost it up to \u20ac5bn(\u00a34.2bn)a year, before the impact of lower sales. The German manufacturer this month said it was still struggling with \u201ccontinued high pressure from import tariffs\u201d. The carmaker was also forced to shift some production of its cheapest cars, such as the Jetta saloon and Taos SUV, from Mexico to the US.<\/p>\n The new factory may add to tensions in Germany, where Volkswagen has started to cut as many as 100,000 jobs and close factories<\/a>. It has blamed the job losses on intense competition from Chinese carmakers, as well as the tariffs and a need to invest heavily in the shift to EVs for markets other than the US.<\/p>\n D\u00f6llner said he accepted the invitation to speak at Trump\u2019s rally out of respect for the US.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWe are planning to bring our \u2060biggest and most premium SUVs, and produce them here in Macon, Georgia,\u201d he said at the event. \u201cThis is a long-term investment because we believe in the American market.\u201d<\/p>\n Volkswagen\u2019s chief executive, Oliver Blume, told investors in July that \u201cUS tariffs create a significant burden and restrict international trade\u201d.<\/p>\n However, the group has said there is still demand in the US for Audi\u2019s large petrol SUVs, and it is planning its largest-ever SUV, the Q9, with the American market in mind. Large petrol-powered SUVs have played a big role in global carbon emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audi has said it will spend $4bn (\u00a33bn) to build its first factory in the US, as its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":["post-656787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792945209_438_500.jpg\")
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