Two Audi Q vehicles are shown at FAW-Volkswagen's new Audi Q plant in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, March 29, 2018. FAW-Volkswagen launched a new Audi Q plant here on Thursday. The new plant is designed with an annual production capacity of 150,000 Audi Q range vehicles. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)

CHANGCHUN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The FAW-Volkswagen Audi Q plant in Changchun city, northeast China's Jilin Province, went into operation Thursday.

The plant, with an investment of 6.4 billion yuan (about 1 billion U.S. dollars), is designed to have a capacity of 150,000 units a year and is dedicated to the manufacture of high-end Audi Q models.

The plant is projected to generate an output value of 160 billion yuan a year.

The plant has 510 robots at its welding and painting workshops.

A record 595,288 Audi vehicles were sold in China last year, up 1.1 percent year on year. The Sino-German auto joint venture FAW-Volkswagen Automotive plans to roll out 16 new Audi models in China this year.