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VW factory in Brussels to be taken over by Audi
INGOLSTADT, Germany: Audi, Volkswagen's luxury brand, said Monday that it would take over the VW factory in Brussels to add capacity for new models and to help raise sales.
Audi signed a letter of intent Monday to assume management responsibility for the plant, the chief executive, Rupert Stadler, said at his headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany.
"This will effectively make Brussels a member of the Audi family," he said.
Audi needs the added production to meet a long-term goal of selling 1.5 million vehicles in 2015. Audi plans to add 18 new vehicles by 2015, nearly doubling the total lineup to 40 models. Audi last year accounted for about half the group's profit.

"To build this extended model range in the long term," Stadler said, "we will need additional production capacity."
The company will build a small car, the A1, at the plant starting in 2009. Stadler said last week at the Geneva auto show that the car's sales would exceed 100,000 annually.
The factory deal ends several months of debate between Volkswagen, the largest European carmaker, and its Belgian workers. The negotiations first started in November when Volkswagen announced that it would end production of the Golf hatchback at the Brussels plant, eliminating more than 3,000 of the 5,500 jobs at the factory.
Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen's chief executive and previously chief at Audi, said in December that he would keep the plant open and build the small car at the factory if workers agreed to plans to reduce labor costs 20 percent.
The workers voted at the end of last month to extend the workweek without additional pay in exchange for investments to build the new Audi model and employment guarantees.
"There is no denying that the prospects for the Brussels plant, and opinions on what should be done with it, were not always positive," said Peter Mosch, who heads the Audi works council, which represents employees. "The signing today of the letter of intent is therefore all the more pleasing."
Under the deal, blue-collar employees will work 38 hours a week, compared with 35 now. The workweek for white-collar employees will increase to 40 from 36. The agreement includes a promise to build 84,000 vehicles annually in the three-year period until 2009, securing 2,200 jobs.
The Brussels deal is similar to one that the carmaker reached in September with Western German workers, who agreed to a longer workweek after receiving production pledges. - Chad Thomas