GYOR -- Audi officially opened on Wednesday a 900-million-euro (US$1.2-billion) expansion of its plant in Hungary where the new premium compact A3 saloon model will be produced.
The company, part of the Volkswagen group, earlier said the extension would hike output capacity at the factory in the northwestern town of Gyor to 125,000 vehicles annually from 33,500 last year.
"The A3 models produced here will be the first models to be entirely manufactured here," Thomas Faustmann, Audi's Hungary head, said Wednesday at the opening ceremony.
Until now the two models produced in Gyor -- the A3 and TT models -- were assembled from imported components.
Audi -- which began operations here in 1993 -- took on 2,100 new staff in recent months in preparation for the opening of the new plant, raising the total headcount at the facility to 9,200.
Over the last two decades, Gyor has been one of Audi's most important engines of growth, said Rupert Stadler, the firm's chief executive.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
