BERLIN, March 15 (Reuters) - Audi's top management will decide in the next year or two whether to build batteries for its vast electric-car programme in its high-cost German home market, its chief executive said.
Audi's labour leaders have urged management to invest in battery-cell technology and to assemble powerpacks at the two core factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, where R&D operations and two thirds of the 91,000 workforce are based.
"We have not yet taken a decision on this matter," Chief Executive Rupert Stadler told journalists after the brand's annual news conference on Thursday.
Audi has set up battery-making facilities in Brussels where the carmaker will start making the all-electric e-tron sport-utility vehicle this year.
Audi has picked the small plant, with a staff of 2,700 people, as a lead factory for electric mobility within the parent Volkswagen group.
"It's also a question of space," Stadler said. "Here (in Germany) it is definitely a bit more complex. We will have to decide this in the next one to two years," he said. (Reporting by Andreas Cremer Editing by Maria Sheahan)