FRANKFURT: Volkswagen plans to nearly double its production in China in the next few years, according to a management board member who was recently appointed to head the group’s operations in the country.

“By 2018 we will raise our production capacity in the country to 4 million vehicles,” Jochem Heizmann told German weekly magazine Focus.

VW’s two Chinese joint ventures are investing a total of 14 billion euros ($17 billion) by 2016, and the Wolfsburg, Germany-based group has said in the past its annual production capacity in China would rise to 3 million cars as early as next year.

According to VW’s annual report, the two JVs with partners FAW and Shanghai Automotive ( SAIC) boosted their output by 15 per cent to 2.20 million vehicles in 2011, accounting for just over a quarter of the group’s global production of 8.5 million.

Volkswagen is expanding its existing plants in Changchun, Nanjing and Chengdu, as well as building new ones in Yizheng, Foshan and Ningbo.

In April, Volkswagen said it would also invest 170 million euros to build a new assembly plant in Urumqi, a city in impoverished western China where tensions are high between the local Muslim ethnic minority Uighurs and Han Chinese.

Heizmann, a production expert, was picked to oversee VW’s China operations as part of a comprehensive management reshuffle that affected virtually every brand at the company.

Volkswagen aims to eclipse larger rivals Toyota and General Motors at the top of the industry by 2018.

盖世汽车网2012年6月11日报道　据德国《焦点周刊》（Focus）6月10日报道，大众汽车计划在最大单一市场中国进一步扩张，预计2018年在华产能将达400万辆/年，大约比当前水平增长一倍。

2018年是大众汽车重要节点，按照此前规划，届时大众汽车全球年销量将突破1,000万辆，力求压倒竞争对手通用汽车和丰田汽车，成为最大车企。2011年大众全球总销量为836.1万辆（含曼卡车及斯堪尼亚），其中在华销量约226万辆；总产量849.4万辆，中国生产工厂贡献了约220万辆，占约四分之一比例。这意味着2018年大众在华产能接近当前的两倍。

因而大众汽车为中国制定了巨额投资扩产计划，两家合资子公司——上海大众及一汽大众到2016年之前将投资170亿美元，主要用于产能扩张。