The German carmaker Audi is to invest 900 million euros (1.2 billion dollars) in a major expansion of its Hungarian operations, dpa quoted chairman Rupert Stadler as announcing in the capital Budapest on Thursday. The investment will lead to 1,800 new jobs by 2013, Stadler and Prime Minister Viktor Orban told reporters in Hungary's parliament building. Audi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen, currently produces its TT Coupé, TT Roadster and A3 Cabriolet models at its plant near the Hungarian industrial city of Gyor. The factory, which opened in 1994, employs about 5,600 workers at present and produced over 32,603 cars and 1,383,909 engines last year, according to the firm's web site. Audi aims to raise Hungarian production to over 125,000 cars annually by 2013 through its new investment in an integrated manufacturing base. The news of Audi's planned massive capital injection comes just two days after a similar announcement by Opel, the German subsidiary of the US giant General Motors. Opel announced on Tuesday a 500-million-euro expansion of its engine production plant in Szentgotthard, western Hungary, with the promise of 1,000 new jobs. With the expansion of its Audi production lines in Hungary, parent company Volkswagen looks set to trump even its German rival Daimler in terms of the scale of its ongoing investment in the Central European country. Construction work is already underway in the Hungarian town of Kecskemét on Daimler's new Mercedes-Benz factory, a billion-dollar project that is expected to create 2,500 jobs when production lines start rolling in 2012. The Hungarian government has hailed the latest investments in the automotive sector as evidence of the confidence of the "real economy" in Hungary as it pulls out of a deep recession.
