The carmaker will team up with Chinese joint venture partner FAW to build the plants, which are located on the east coast and represent an investment of over €2bn.

‘China has become our largest and most important market. To satisfy the demands of our customers in the country, we are engaging in a further substantial expansion of our capacities in China together with our Chinese partner FAW Volkswagen,’ said Prof Dr Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft.

Volkswagen has been active on the Chinese market for 30 years. Together with its two joint ventures FAW-Volkswagen and Shanghai-Volkswagen, the group delivered about 1.51 million vehicles between January and May 2014, up by 17.7% compared with the same period of in 2013.

As well as Chengdu, FAW-Volkswagen also has car plants in Chendu in west China, Changchun, northeast China, and Foshan, south China. With the other joint venture, Shanghai Volkswagen, the Group operates vehicle plants in Shanghai, Nanjing, Yizheng, Ningbo and Urumqi, and is constructing a new plant in Changsha, opening in 2015.

Together with its Chinese joint venture partners, the Volkswagen Group is to invest a total of €18.2bn in new plants and products between 2014 and 2018 – said to be the largest investment programme in the history of the Chinese automotive industry.