Audi to ramp up production in China

German luxury carmaker Audi said Thursday it planned to accelerate its production capacity in China, building a vast new plant to provide up to 200,000 new cars a year for the booming Chinese market. The new factory in the southern Chinese city of Foshan will be up and running by 2013, Audi said in a statement, and will employ 4,000 people manufacturing, among others, a new version of the Audi A3. The plant is Audi's second plant in China as it seeks to boost production in the country to a total of 700,000 cars a year. In the year to October, Audi had already delivered around 250,000 cars, a gain of 32 percent on the same period last year. They expect to sell 300,000 by the end of this year. "We want to strengthen our presence significantly in China," said Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler in a statement. Like its German competitors Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Audi is pinning its hopes on China for rapid growth.