After about 3,5 years, the Audi plant in Forest (Brussels) has built its 200 000th electric vehicle: a Soneira Red Q8 Sportback e-tron, the updated version of the original e-tron, which has been in production since late 2018. Later this year, the plant will also start building the smaller Q4 e-tron to meet global demand.

The Forest plant was originally built by Belgian VW Group importer D’Ieteren in 1948, initially to produce Studebakers. In 1954, however, the Brussels-based car factory also started building VW Beetles, with many other VW models like the Golf and Passat to follow.

First VW, then Audi

VW took over the factory in 1970, and held onto it until 2007 when Audi took the reins in preparation for the production of its compact A1, which was built in Brussels from 2010 to 2018. At this point, the Forest plant was converted to become Audi’s first EV production facility for the e-tron and e-tron Sportback models, renamed to Q8 e-tron and Q8 Sportback e-tron in 2022.

It’s also Audi’s first carbon-neutral production plant. In the second half of 2023, the smaller MEB-based Q4 e-tron will also start rolling off the production lines in Brussels, to support the Zwickau plant in Germany to meet demand for this popular crossover EV.