How Georgia landed Audi’s first U.S. manufacturing plant

Georgia recently received a big announcement about a huge investment by the German automaker Audi at the Middle Georgia Megasite in Perry.

The company plans a $4 billion investment in a manufacturing facility, which is expected to bring around 4,500 new jobs to the area.

But, how did Georgia manage to land the company’s first manufacturing facility in the U.S.?

Gov. Brian Kemp told WABE how the deal happened.

“I read an article and Audi said that they were looking at coming to the U.S.” Kemp said.

Kemp’s team set up a meeting with the company at the Munich Security Conference in February, but Kemp said he didn’t think the deal was going to go through and considered selling the site to another company.

“The project then went cold for a long time. I think we opened it back up and started marketing the site again but then they came and we got the deal done. So it’s been a long coming, but it was very exciting,” Kemp said.

The state has expanded its auto manufacturing profile over the last eight years to include Hyundai, Rivian and now Audi.