Why is Audi CEO facing backlash over Trump deal? Who is Gernot Döllner? Explained

Audi chief executive Gernot Döllner is facing criticism from German politicians and trade union leaders after appearing alongside US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Georgia, where Trump announced the automaker’s plan to invest around $4 billion in a new US factory.

The announcement has intensified tensions over tariffs, German industrial jobs and Volkswagen Group’s restructuring at home.

The proposed Audi investment in US' Georgia is intended to expand the automaker's presence in the North American market, but Döllner’s public appearance with Trump has drawn criticism in Germany, as the US president’s trade policies have placed additional pressure on the country’s automotive industry.

Gernot Döllner is a German automotive executive who became chief executive of Audi in September 2023. A long-serving Volkswagen Group employee, he spent much of his career working on vehicle development and corporate strategy before taking charge of the luxury carmaker.

Döllner joined Volkswagen in 1993 and held several senior positions within the group, including roles connected to product strategy and development. Before moving to Audi, he worked closely with Volkswagen’s broader product and technology planning, bringing engineering and management experience to the role.

Gernot Döllner's appearance at Trump’s rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday brought him into a politically sensitive debate over the future of German manufacturing.

Trump has promoted tariffs as a way to encourage companies to produce more vehicles in the US, while German manufacturers have warned that trade barriers can increase costs and complicate investment decisions.

Döllner defended his participation, saying the investment had followed months of planning and negotiations.

“If the American president invites you, you accept the invitation. That is what respect for the office and for the country in which we invest demands,” he told reporters on Sunday.

Trump announced that Audi plans to invest approximately $4 billion in a new manufacturing plant in Georgia. The proposed facility is expected to create about 4,500 jobs and have an annual production capacity of up to 200,000 vehicles.

Audi announced its plans on October 25, saying it intends to produce premium SUVs tailored to North American customers. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with production expected to start in the early 2030s.

Audi said the investment would strengthen its presence in one of the world’s most important premium-car markets and establish North America as a third major production pillar alongside Europe and China.

However, the investment is not yet final. Volkswagen AG’s supervisory board must still approve the plan. Audi AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG (the Volkswagen Group). Döllner has also declined to provide full details of the negotiations, including whether the deal would secure tariff relief.

The backlash centres on Döllner’s appearance alongside Trump during the US election campaign, as well as the implications of the investment for German industry.

Isabel Cademartori, Germany's Social Democratic Party lawmaker and the party’s transport policy spokesperson, accused Audi of supporting Trump’s trade strategy.

“Actively campaigning for an autocrat who is waging a trade war against Germany marks a new low for the VW Group,” she said, describing the appearance as a disgrace given Volkswagen’s historical links to the Nazi Party.

Christiane Benner, head of Germany’s IG Metall union and Volkswagen’s deputy supervisory board chair, also criticised Döllner’s conduct. She said the appearance was politically unacceptable and questioned whether it complied with the company’s internal rules on political neutrality ahead of elections.

Benner nevertheless acknowledged that improving Audi’s position in US market was necessary, while insisting that the company must provide clear prospects for workers across its German sites.

Audi imports vehicles for US market from Europe and Mexico, leaving it exposed to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. The company has said the duties on cars, steel, aluminium and parts cost it around €1.2 billion last year.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen is facing a major restructuring in Germany, with job cuts and potential factory closures adding to tensions between management and workers. Chief executive Oliver Blume has partly attributed the group’s weakest financial results in a decade to US tariffs.

The Georgia project could help Audi manufacture vehicles closer to American customers and reduce its exposure to import duties. But it has also raised concerns in Germany about whether investment and employment opportunities will increasingly shift to the US as trade tensions reshape the automotive industry.

Sayantani Biswas is an assistant editor at Livemint with seven years of experience covering geopolitics, foreign policy, international relations and global power dynamics. She reports on Indian and international politics, including elections worldwide, and specialises in historically grounded analysis of contemporary conflicts and state decisions. She joined Mint in 2021, after covering politics at publications including The Telegraph. <br> She holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University (2019), with a specialisation in postcolonial Latin American literature. Her research examined economic nationalism through Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. She also writes on political language, cultural memory and the long shadows of conflict. <br> Biswas grew up in Durgapur, an industrial town in West Bengal shaped by migration, which drew families from across India to the Durgapur Steel Plant. As the only child in a joint family, she spent years listening—almost obsessively—to her grandparents’ testimonies of struggle, fear and loss as they fled Bangladesh during the Partition of 1947. This formative exposure to lived historical memory later converged with her training in Comparative Literature, equipping her to analyse socio-economic structures and their reverberations. <br> Outside the newsroom, she gravitates towards cultural history and critical theory, returning often to texts such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour and fairness, and believes political reporting demands not only clarity and speed, but historical depth, contextual precision, and a disciplined resistance to spectacle.

Get Latest real-time updates

Catch all the Business News , Corporate news , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.

✕

Wait for it…

Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.