General Motors plans four new plants in the next three years in China to bring its production capacity there to 5m vehicles a year.

Bob Socia, head of GM China, said the company and its joint venture partners will spend US$11bn by 2016. The new factories, in addition to two which came on line last year, will take the number of GM JV plants in China to 17.

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The company does not see any overcapacity issues. Socia said that GM’s plant in China were running near maximum capacity and that he was confident there would be further growth.

GM also plans to export around 300,000 of the 5m cars it will be producing in China, up from an expected 100,000 this year.

Meanwhile, the company’s European division, Opel, took part in its first Chinese auto show for five years, displaying three new models in Shanghai.

It’s no secret that Opel needs to expand beyond Europe to preserve jobs and return to profit – it lost $1.8bn last year and its factories are operating well below maximum capacity as home markets continue to shrink.

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Opel will struggle in China because it only has a small dealer network and will have to contend with high import tariffs, which could add up to 25% to the price, as well as strong local competition.

CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann recently told Germany’s Bild newspaper that to be successful in China Opel would have to invest hundreds of millions of euros, adding that the company has “other priorities”.

At the Shanghai show, Opel debuted three cars set go on sale in China this year, the flagship Insignia ST wagon, Astra GTC coupe and Zafira Tourer minivan.

It will face competition from its own models. The Astra hatchback and sedan are already made in China by GM as the Buick Excelle XT and GT and the Insignia is rebadged by GM’s US brand Buick as the Regal.