( Autoinsiderne - Audi has announced that it will take over management responsibility for Volkswagen's Brussels, Belgium assembly plant. Late last year, VW announced that it will move production of its Golf to plants in Germany, and there was speculation that the automaker would completely close the assembly plant. are now growing that the factory may be closed completely. However, VW decided that it would use the plant's capacity to build the Audi's new A1 entry-level car.
Under the terms of the agreement, later this year, the Audi A3 will join the production mix, and will be built along with various Volkswagen models until the end of 2009. After that, the new, compact Audi A1 (or whatever it will be called) will be built in Brussels starting in late 2009 or early 2010.
With various work rule changes, the new competitive pay and cost structures will cut personnel costs by 20 percent. The Brussels plant will help Audi meet is goal to increase production from 905,000 cars in 2006 to 1.5 million by 2015.