Audi to invest €22bn in new models, technology

Audi, the top-of-the-range carmaker owned by German auto giant Volkswagen, announced Friday a massive investment programme in new models and technology over the next five years. The company said it would invest around 22 billion euros ($30 billion) between 2014 and 2018 and also said it had achieved its goal of an annual 1.5 million deliveries early. "In the future, we will be investing increasingly in new products: 70 percent is intended for the modernisation and expansion of the model range and for our portfolio of technologies," Axel Strotbek, Audi board member for finance said in a statement. Audi, whose main rivals are German carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz, said it now eyeing two million deliveries a year by 2020, after reaching 1.5 million this year, two years earlier than planned. The group plans to extend its product range from 49 models currently to 60 by 2020, it said.