BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -- German carmaker Audi AG said Thursday it would invest euro900 million ($1.2 billion) to extend its production site in Hungary.
About 1,800 jobs will be added at the plant in Gyor in western Hungary, where Audi builds engines and assembles cars like the TT Roadster, TT Coupe and A3 models. Audi Hungaria now employs more than 5,800 people.
The plant's extension over the next three years will put Audi in a position to "meet its ambitious growth targets," Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said.
The Gyor plant is expected to produce around 125,000 cars a year from 2013 and Audi plans to sell 1.5 million cars a year by 2015, up from around 950,000 in 2009, Stadler said.
"To continue this growth rate in a sustained manner, we need further capacity like what we are going to establish in our Hungarian location," Stadler said at a news conference held in parliament with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Audi recently purchased a 200-hectare (495-acre) plot next to its existing factory in Gyor for euro23 million ($30.6 million) to carry out the expansion, which will allow the plant to have its own complete production line.
At present, the cars' body shells are made at an Audi plant in Ingolstadt, Germany, and shipped by rail to Gyor.
Environmentalists have raised concerns about the expansion, which is planned on a former military shooting range which is now part of a nature reserve.
Orban said all constructions permits, including environmental authorizations, would be obtained in time for the project to go ahead as planned.
Audi also said its board and the workers' council agreed to extend an existing job guarantee for Audi's German plants in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm throughout 2014.
Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, has seen its sales rising sharply in recent months, driven by strong exports.
