Germany's Audi said it would invest about 22 billion euros ($30.1 billion) in new models, plants and technology in the five years through 2018.

That equates to 4.4 billion euros a year, compared with 2.6 billion euros in the carmaker's budget of December 2011.

Sources said earlier this month that Audi planned to increase spending as the luxury carmaker steps up efforts to catch larger competitor BMW .

Audi, a division of Volkswagen, yesterday said that 70 per cent of its planned investment was earmarked for new models and technology, and more than half of the sum would go to its German sites in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm.

Planned investments will sustain Audi's foreign expansion as the carmaker sets up factories in Mexico and China and eyes production in Brazil. Audi for the first time next year plans to build more cars outside Germany than at home.-Reuters