Automakers are flocking to setup shop in a new location and it has nothing to do with Trump’s tariffs. in fact, quite the opposite, as Saudi Arabia has emerged as the automotive production capital of the Middle East.

Things kicked into high gear in 2023 when Lucid opened Advanced Manufacturing Plant 2 in the Kingdom. It assembles the Air using  semi-knock-down kits that are “pre-manufactured” at the company’s main plant in Casa Grande, Arizona.

More: Lucid Opens New Plant In Saudi Arabia, Will Build The Air EV

However, the plant aims to become a fully fledged production facility later this decade. If everything goes according to plan, it will be able to build up to 150,000 vehicles annually, which will be sold in Saudi Arabia as well as export markets.

While the Lucid plant wasn’t surprising considering Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund owned over 60% of the automaker at the time, Hyundai has now broken ground on a new plant in the King Salman Automotive Cluster within the King Abdullah Economic City. It will become the company’s first “production base” in the Middle East and it lays the “foundation for becoming a leading brand in Saudi Arabia.”

The plant is slated to open in the fourth quarter of 2026 and have an annual production capacity of 50,000 units. The company didn’t say what will be built at the facility, but confirmed it will make vehicles with electric powertrains as well as internal combustion engines.

The Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Middle East (HMMME) facility is a joint venture between the automaker and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The latter will have a 70% stake, while Hyundai controls the remaining 30%.

While Saudi Arabia is an unusual spot for automotive production, their sovereign wealth fund has been enticing automakers to setup shop in the country. The investments are part of a national development project known as Vision 2030, which seeks to diversify the economy. As part of this effort, Saudi Arabia wants to be less reliant on oil production and vehicle manufacturing is part of that.

Audi is broadening its e-tron GT lineup with the introduction of a new entry-level variant, set to launch in Europe. Known simply as the quattro, this new trim takes its place below the more performance-focused S, RS, and RS Performance versions, offering a more accessible option.

Audi had surprisingly little to say about the car, but it features a body color Singleframe grille with a black surround. Customers will also find Matrix LED headlights, a black diffuser, and 20-inch wheels with a black finish. They’re joined by mirror caps that can be had in either black or carbon.

More: 2025 Audi E-Tron GT Is $19,000 Pricier But Much Faster This Year

The interior features a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 10.1-inch infotainment system. Other niceties include heated sport seats, a heated sport steering wheel, a panoramic glass sunroof, and a ten speaker audio system. Audi also noted there’s a decent amount of storage space including a trunk and frunk with 14.3 cubic feet (405 liters) and 2.7 cubic feet (77 liter), respectively.

Power comes from a 105 kWh (usable: 97 kWh) battery pack, which feeds a dual-motor all-wheel drive system developing 496 hp (370 kW / 503 PS) or 577 hp (430 kW / 585 PS) with Launch Control. This enables the car to rocket from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in as little as four seconds. By comparison, the S e-tron quattro delivers up to 671 hp (500 kW / 680 PS) with Launch Control for a 0-62 run in 3.4 seconds.

Besides being fast, the e-tron GT quattro is 66.1 lbs (30 kg) lighter than the S variant and has a range of up to 387 miles (622 km). When the battery is low, customers will be thankful for the 320 kW DC fast charging capability that can deliver up to 177 miles (285 km) of range in as little as ten minutes.

Audi is now accepting orders, with German pricing starting at €108,900 (around $118,000 at current exchange rates), a notable drop from the previous entry-level S e-tron GT, which started at €126,000 ($141,000). In the United Kingdom, the quattro will arrive in August, priced at £88,555 ($111,000) It will also be offered in a better-equipped Vorsprung variant for £108,055 ($134,000).

Audi’s AUDI, which, ironically, is not an Audi, has always struck us as a bit ridiculous, and that seems to be a theme for the model. Not only does it sport a name that sounds like it was picked by the least imaginative people on Earth, but it also comes with a ridiculously small frunk.

How small? Roughly the size of a shoe box judging by an image that has surfaced on social media. While there’s no immediate word on its dimensions or capacity, opening the hood reveals a large expanse of black plastic. In the center is a small opening, which appears to be carpeted and barely useful.

More: Audi’s AUDI Launches 770 HP Wagon Most Of The World Will Never See

While some frunk is better than no frunk at all, the AUDI E5 Sportback’s compartment is far from impressive. This helps to explain the strong reaction on social media.

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/9z4tnurafd

— 풀백수시고(풀소유) (@newdtfullowning) May 7, 2025

Set to be launched in China this summer, the E5 Sportback is a glorified wagon that lacks a four-ring logo. The model also features a “reinterpretation of the familiar Singleframe” grille with a Light Frame surround. The latter consists of more than 1,000 individual lights and they’re joined by Matrix LED headlights. Other notable highlights include digital side mirrors and frameless doors.

In terms of size, the model measures 192.2 inches (4,881 mm) long, 77.1 inches (1,959 mm) wide, and 58.2 inches (1,478 mm) tall. This means the E5 is 4.3 inches (109 mm) shorter than the redesigned A6.

The company hasn’t said much about the interior, but it’s dominated by a 59-inch pillar-to-pillar display. Two screens showing footage from the digital side mirrors act as bookends and the display-focused setup gives the car a high-tech persona.

The rest of the cabin sports a minimalist design largely devoid of switchgear. However, there’s a 50 watt wireless smartphone charger, a Bose audio system, and an electrochromic sunroof. Buyers will also find an AI assistant, chestnut wood trim, and a fragrance diffuser.

The car rides on the Advanced Digitized Platform and will offer rear- and all-wheel drive. These will have outputs ranging from 295 hp (220 kW / 299 PS) to 776 hp (579 kW / 787 PS). The latter variant will rocket from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in a mere 3.4 seconds.

AUDI has been coy on additional details, but the E5 will be offered with up to a 100 kWh battery pack. This will provide a range of up to 478 miles (770 km). When the battery is low, an ultra-fast charger can deliver 230 miles (370 km) of range in as little as ten minutes.

The E5 Sportback also promises to have advanced driver assistance systems that will make commutes a breeze. Besides the roof-mounted LiDAR sensor, there are three long-range millimeter-wave radars, twelve ultrasonic sensors, eleven cameras, and several multi-modal sensing units.

Lead image X@newdtfullowning

While the VW Group produces many vehicles in the United States, every single Audi sold locally is built in either Europe or Mexico and exported to the US, meaning they are subject to President Trump’s 25 percent auto tariffs. The premium brand is working hard to avoid these tariffs and could build several of its vehicles locally.

A recent report out of Germany suggests that Audi may build the existing Q4 e-tron crossover, or its successor, at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This would be a logical option as the Q4 e-tron shares the same MEB platform as the VW ID.4, which is currently built in Tennessee.

Read: Audi Stops All US Vehicle Exports Over Tariffs

At the same time, it could alter production plans for the Q8 e-tron. This model was originally going to be built in Mexico, but it may now be manufactured in Columbia, South Carolina, which will be home to Scout and handle production of both the EV and EREV versions of the Terra and Traveler. While VW has been eager to distance itself from Scout to allow the new brand to sell direct-to-consumers, it clearly has enough influence over it to also have the site build an unrelated model from Audi.

According to a report from Automobilwoche, the VW Group is also eyeing a third potential location for building the Q6 e-tron, though details are scarce for now.

When asked about these plans, an Audi spokesperson didn’t exactly confirm anything but did admit that the U.S. market is one of their top priorities, sitting alongside Europe and China as a core pillar of their global strategy.

“We want to increase our presence in the U.S.,” they told Auto News. “We are currently examining various scenarios. We are confident that we will be able to decide on the specific details in consultation with the Group before the end of this year.”

Either way, the wheels are in motion for Audi to make a more significant push in the States, as it’s imperative for the company to do whatever it takes to dodge those tariffs, whether by relocating production, shifting models, or just flexing the power of the VW Group.

Party hats were compulsory headgear at VW’s Zwickau plant in eastern Germany this week. The factory produces six different EVs for various VW Group brands and just built its millionth electric car, an ID.3 GTX hot hatch. But Zwickau’s busy production lines are causing a headache for the bean counters at VW’s Wolfsburg HQ.

The problem is that EVs are expensive to build and deliver smaller margins than equivalent combustion-powered cars. And while electric sales doubling in Europe in the first quarter of 2025 is something to celebrate, some of those sales come at the expense of ICE sales.

Related: VW ID.2 Might Have A Shot In America, But ID.1 Is ‘Highly Unlikely’

As EVs take up a greater proportion of the sales mix – they accounted for one in five VW Group cars in Jan-March – they push profitability down, reducing the margin to 4 percent. And the withdrawal of EV subsidies in many European countries means VW can’t lean on government incentives to allow them to charge more.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the VW ID.2 and its various spinoffs and related EVs. The €25k ($28k) ID.2, which will be built in Spain, goes on sale in 2026 and should be one of the first Western-built EVs to return margins close to an ICE car’s. The baby VW and its sister SUV, plus the Cupra Raval and Skoda Epiq use a new front-wheel drive version of the MEB platform that costs less to produce.

Earlier this month VW revealed that earnings before tax were down 40 percent to €3.1 billion ($3.5 bn) in Q1 even as deliveries increased by 1.4 percent. The company’s finance chief Arno Antlitz partly attributes this to EVs taking a bigger slice of the sales pie.

But President Trump’s tariffs threaten to throw an even bigger spanner in the VW Group’s plans. The constantly-changing US import tariff situation is making it harder for automaker to make financial forecasts for the rest of the year, but VW, which is badly exposed due to Audi and Porsche’s lack of US production sites, has already downgraded primed investors to expect a less successful year than previously anticipated.