A model poses with a New Sagitar of FAW-Volkswagen during an auto show in Haikou city, Hainan province, July 13?2012. [Photo/dfic.cn]

TIANJIN - A production base that FAW-Volkswagen plans to set up in Tianjin will be the biggest joint-venture investment in the northern port city's manufacturing sector, said an executive involved with the project on Wednesday.

The base in the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area will have an investment of $2.5 billion, said Xu Hongxing, director of the development area's administration committee.

Construction is due to start this year, and the base is expected to be put into use in 2018.

FAW-Volkswagen is a joint venture of China's FAW Group, Germany's Volkswagen AG, Audi AG and Volkswagen Automobile Investment Co Ltd.

Volkswagen announced last year that it would build two new auto plants in Tianjin and East China's Qingdao city, to expand production capacity.

China is Volkswagen's largest market worldwide. Volkswagen Group China delivered 3.68 million automobiles to the market in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong in 2014, up 12.4 percent year on year.