BERLIN -- Audi will build electric vehicles at its plants across the world, including sites in Mexico and Hungary, CEO Rupert Stadler said, detailing the automaker's zero-emission plans.
The Volkswagen Group-owned automaker has awarded production of its first two mass-produced electric cars to its plant in Brussels, and has since been pressured by labor unions to allocate electric car projects to Germany.
"In future, electric cars will roll off the line in all of our plants," Stadler told a gathering of 7,000 workers at Audi's base in Ingolstadt, Germany, on Wednesday.
Audi's development chief Peter Mertens said the automaker plans to roll out more than 20 electrified vehicles before 2025, with about a dozen designed to be battery-only.
Audi will start production of its e-tron EV in Brussels next year, with the e-tron Sportback following at the factory in 2019. The e-tron will be a rival to the Tesla Model X, while the e-tron Sportback will compete with crossovers such as the upcoming Jaguar I-Pace.
In 2020, Audi will offer a compact electric car based on the VW Group’s modular electrification platform (MEB), Stadler said at the company's annual meeting in May. Starting in 2021, Audi will add EVs built on a new premium electric platform it is developing with Porsche.
Besides Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm in Germany, which employ two thirds of Audi's 88,000 workers, the carmaker owns plants in Belgium, Mexico and Hungary and uses a network of facilities run by VW and Skoda to build vehicles overseas.
Separately, labor boss Peter Mosch on Wednesday called on top management to speed up assigning production of electric cars to Germany, as staff in Audi's home market fear they could lose out in the race for zero emissions orders and projects.
"The workforce here wants to see results no later than by the end of this year," Mosch told the Ingolstadt meeting.
Workers are also grappling with the fallout of the VW Group's diesel emissions test cheating scandal, which involved some Audi models, and a costly business transformation. "We need clarity," said Mosch, a member of both Audi's and the VW group's supervisory boards.
Automotive News Europe contributed to this report
