Audi CEO Gernot Dollner defends appearance at Donald Trump rally in letter to workers

• Audi CEO Gernot Dollner defended joining Donald Trump’s Georgia rally, saying the US$4 billion plant announcement was “solely in the interest of the company”.
• The move angered German workers and union leaders, who called it “highly embarrassing” and “politically unacceptable”, and warned it could affect approval of the factory.
• The plant plan comes as parent Volkswagen cuts costs, reshapes its workforce, and faces weak demand, Chinese competition, and tariff pressure in the US.

Audi chief executive officer Gernot Dollner said he acted in the interest of the carmaker when he took part in US President Donald Trump’s campaign rally that announced the company would build a US$4 billion (S$5.1 billion) plant in the country.

The two men shared the stage in Georgia over the weekend, days before the US midterm elections. The appearance triggered a wave of criticism in Germany as taking sides in the upcoming vote. 

The Audi executive, who had travelled to the US for talks about the project, said the company was asked to announce the go-ahead for the facility together with Trump, Dollner said in a letter to workers seen by Bloomberg News. The decision to appear “was taken solely in the interest of the company”, it said.

“At the same time, we realise that the announcement was taken as signalling a political stance,” Dollner wrote. “We take this very seriously.”

The planned site in Georgia still needs to be greenlighted at Audi parent Volkswagen’s supervisory board level, where worker representatives hold half the seats. The furore about the Trump rally could complicate this step, and push the company into making concessions elsewhere. 

VW as well as Audi are in the midst of tense talks on wages and tough savings measures with workers in Germany. 

On Oct 26, Christiane Benner, the head of IG Metall union and VW’s deputy supervisory board chairwoman, called Dollner’s appearance “highly embarrassing” and pointed to labour’s leverage over whether the factory goes ahead. As part of the broad restructuring talks, VW is looking into alternative uses for its large Audi factory in Neckarsulm after earlier saying the plant could be shut. 

“The way Gernot Dollner presented himself and Audi in the US is highly embarrassing, politically unacceptable and unworthy of the company and, above all, its employees,” she said.

VW’s works council chief Daniela Cavallo separately accused Dollner of providing “active campaign assistance”. She said Audi’s internal guidelines prohibit public-facing appearances with politicians standing for election during the final three months before a vote, and that he had signed those principles only months ago. 

The plan to spend US$4 billion on a facility in the US lands in the middle of VW’s attempt to radically reshape its industrial footprint and shrink its domestic workforce in Europe.

VW CEO Oliver Blume is pushing to cut jobs and factory costs while investing more heavily in growth markets including the US. Europe’s largest carmaker is struggling with weak demand, fierce Chinese competition and the costly shift to electric and software-defined vehicles.

Audi is particularly exposed to the US trade shift because it still imports most of the vehicles it sells there, leaving the brand vulnerable to tariffs that have already raised costs across VW’s North American business. Dollner on Oct 25 said that the Audi brand is losing money in the US currently. BLOOMBERG