(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) German carmaker Audi announced on Friday that it would invest an additional 22 billion euros (about 30 billion U.S. dollars) in the next five years for new models and technologies and increase employment worldwide. The Ingolstadt-based manufacturer said in a statement that the new investment would be made between 2014 and 2018. About 70 percent of the money would be put into model range expansion and new technologies. "With this investment program we are launching our next stage of growth," said Axel Strotbek, member of the Board of Management of Audi AG for Finance and Organization. By 2020, Audi's auto range would include 60 different models, said the company.
Currently, 49 models were produced worldwide. Audi set a new sales target of 2 million deliveries per year, since its current goal of 1.5 million was reached already in 2013, two years ahead of the schedule. "We are now decisively steering towards our next milestone of two million deliveries. This is why we are keeping our foot on the gas regarding investments and why we are hiring new employees in 2014," said Rupert Stadler, Audi's Chairman of the Board of Management. According Audi, more than half of the investment would go to its production sites in German cities of Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm.
However, several new factories would be set up in other countries. In 2014, 700 young people would be trained in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. More than 1,000 would be hired in Mexico, where Audi planned to build its first factory in North America and produce Audi Q5 from 2016. The four-ring brand also planned to add its production in Brazil, Hungarian, as well as in Foshan, China.
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