Audi was forced to stop production of its flagship all-electric model, the e-tron, at the Brussels plant in Belgium for "a few days" due to undisclosed supply chain issues.
We previously heard that the German manufacturer had some constraints, that not only prevented an increase in the production rate, but even was limiting the output.
It seems that the problems are not solved yet and require a full stop from reportedly some 20 cars per hour to zero.
An Audi spokesman confirmed the news, but has not clarified the reason. Many suspect the cause is limited lithium-ion battery cell supplies from the LG Chem plant in Poland.
"It had already been reported in January that production of the Audi e-tron would be reduced in the first quarter. It was suspected that there were supply problems with the battery cells, as the problems affected the supplier LG Chem in particular. According to an earlier report by "l'Echo", among others, Audi had suspended night-time production of battery module assembly."
That would make sense as Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz were also rumored to have such a problem (with LG Chem supplies). On the other hand, Renault just set a new record for EV sales - also using LG Chem batteries.
The most worrying thing about Audi e-tron production issues are that the company might have some troubles with the introduction of its second model - the Audi e-tron Sportback.
