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Audi, which contributes 40 percent of operating
profit at Europe's biggest automotive group, said on Saturday it
will push up investment in car-making operations by 2 billion
euros ($2.44 billion) to a record 24 billion euros over the next
five years.
Seventy percent of spending will be assigned to developing new
models and technologies such as emission-cutting plug-in hybrid
vehicles, Audi said. The brand is also working on purely
electric cars to catch up with BMW and Tesla Motors.
More than half of the funds will be spent on Audi's two German
factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm which accounted for half
the carmaker's nine-month output of 1.34 million autos, Audi
said, confirming a Reuters story.
"We place top priority on sustainable growth," Chief Executive
Rupert Stadler said. "That’s why we are making large investments
in the innovative areas of electric mobility, connectivity and
lightweight construction."
Audi, the world's second biggest luxury automaker, is aiming to
expand its model range to 60 from currently 50 by 2020 and is
spending over 1 billion euros on new factories in Mexico and
Brazil.
Ingolstadt-based Audi said on Saturday it will hire another 850
workers in Mexico next year where the Q5 sport-utility vehicle
will be assembled from 2016.
Under its previous budget drawn up a year ago, Audi announced
investments of 22 billion euros over the 2014-18 period. Parent
VW in November unveiled auto investments of 85.6 billion euros
through 2019, slightly more than a year earlier, even as the
carmaker is pushing cost cuts at its core brand.
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer)
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