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Audi boosts investments through 2018

FRANKFURT, Dec 27 (Reuters) - 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 in the carmaker's budget of December 2011.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters 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, said on Friday that 70 percent 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.

($1 = 0.7303 euros) (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; editing by Jason Neely)