German auto giant Volkswagen AG on Friday opened an engine plant with an initial capacity of 300,000 units per year in the north-eastern Chinese city of Changchun.

The 94,000 square metre joint-venture plant will increase annual capacity to 450,000 units during its second phase from mid-2014, using “the most advanced production, processing and testing equipment in China,” Volkswagen said.

The launch of the plant with China’s FAW Group marked “a new height in the joint efforts of Volkswagen Group and its Chinese partners for advanced powertrains in China,” Jochem Heizmann, the head of Volkswagen Group China, said in a statement.

The Changchun engine plant is the first of seven new Volkswagen plants planned in China over the next few years.

It will produce several different versions of the EA888 engines used in Volkswagen and Audi cars, the Company said.

Last year, the Company said it planned to invest 14 billion euros ($ 18 billion) by 2016 to develop new models and expand production at FAW-Volkswagen and a second joint venture with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

The two joint ventures produce more than 20 Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi models in China.

FAW-Volkswagen was set up in Changchun in the late 1980s and has delivered more than 6 million vehicles since production started in 1991.

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