German carmaker Audi on Thursday laid the cornerstone of a €900 million expansion at its base in the Hungarian city of Győr.

Audi chairman Rupert Stadler said at the ceremony that the company would set up its own pressing plant in Győr, making it Audi’s fourth base in the world where the entire manufacturing process is carried out. The pressing plant will raise the number of jobs created in Győr from 1,800, announced earlier, to 2,100, he added.

About 6,500 people work at the base at present.

The expansion is to raise output at the base in Győr to 125,000 cars a year from 2013.

Stadler called Hungary a stable and reliable partner, able to get up on its feet with its own strength. In the 18 years Audi has been in Győr, it has turned out 20.5 million engines and 530,000 cars, he added.

Stadler thanked the Parliament, the government and, personally, the prime minister for talks that were based from the start on a deep trust.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called the decision to expand the base an “extraordinarily flattering assessment” of the country and said it shows “Hungarians have a future”. Audi is the kind of company Hungarians want to see in their country, a company that has a future, is strong and modern, and creates many, many jobs, he said.

Audi is getting HUF 11.2 billion in state support for the expansion which it announced in September.

Stadler and Orbán as well as National Economy Minister György Matolcsy, Audi board member for production Frank Dreves Audi Hungaria Motor chairman Thomas Faustmann and Győr mayor Zsolt Borkai participated in the ceremony.

Faustmann said earlier that serial production at the expansion is set to start in the 22nd week of 2013, meaning the first car will roll of the line in the autumn of 2012.

State secretary for foreign trade and investment Zsolt Becsey said the government would soon approve a supplemental agreement covering the pressing plant, which raises Audi’s total new investments at the plant over €1 billion. He declined to reveal any details of the agreement as it has not been approved by the government or the board of VW, Audi’s owner.

Becsey praised the efforts of public servants who worked hard to advance the talks with Audi. Becsey, who led the government delegation at the talks, called the negotiations, which lasted 14 months, “extraordinarily complicated” and “difficult”. He made special mention of representatives of the Natura 2000 nature reserve, a part of which was rezoned to make room for the expansion.