FRANKFURT - Audi AG said it plans to spend 7.3 billion euros ($10.51 billion) on plant upgrades, new products and technology research as it moves to expand its number of customers worldwide and increase market share, reported The Associated Press.

Audi, based in Ingolstadt, Germany, and a unit of Volkswagen AG, said it plans to spend that amount from 2009 to 2012 and will increase the number of models from its current 34 to a planned 42 by 2015.

Of the investment, about 5.9 billion euros will go toward new products and future technologies, or about 80 percent of its planned spending.

The company also wants to expand its model line, adding the A1, A7, A8 and R8 Spyder to its production portfolio in 2010, along with the Q5 Hybrid, slated to reach the market in the beginning of 2011.

"We will be in a position to finance all our planned investments from our operative cash flow," Strotbek said.

The carmaker plans to spend heavily at its German plants, disbursing euro3.8 billion to its Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm plants from this year through 2012.