INGOLSTADT (dpa-AFX) - Audi wants to build electric cars in the U.S. in the future. The Volkswagen subsidiary does not yet have a plant there, and with the new subsidies "building a U.S. plant for electric cars has of course become highly attractive," CEO Markus Duesmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

"Decisions have not yet been made, but in the future the Volkswagen Group will probably build more cars for the U.S. market there as well than before," Duesmann said. A separate Audi plant or a plant with other VW Group brands is possible, he said. "However, there is a high probability that we will do it as part of the group."

Volkswagen has a large plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which will henceforth build e-cars. Audi has so far supplied the U.S. market from its SUV plant in Mexico and its other sites. Last year, Audi sales in the U.S. fell 5 percent to 187,000 vehicles.

Duesmann said more than 20 new Audi models would be launched in the next two years, half of them all-electric.

Audi is currently building its own plant in the northern Chinese metropolis of Changchun, where it plans to build up to 150,000 electric cars annually for the Chinese market based on the PPE luxury platform developed with Porsche. So far, Audi has been producing in Changchun at FAW Volkswagen's plants and in Shanghai at SAIC Volkswagen./rol/DP/ngu