SAIC General Motors (SGM), a joint venture between China's SAIC and General Motors, started operations at the Wuhan plant last year. The new production line will be able to produce 360,000 vehicles a year, bringing the combined capacity to 600,000, Xinhua said.

SGM said it has invested 7.5 billion yuan (899.21 million pounds) for the new production line, which has been under construction since January 2015, the news agency reported. It will manufacture a new generation of GM Chevrolet Equinox SUVs.

The plant generated revenue of nearly 23 billion yuan in the first nine months of this year, Xinhua said. 

GM's China chief Matt Tsien told a press conference in March that Wuhan plant was operating at maximum utilization, and a planned second phase is being added there that will double capacity.

He said that sport-utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and luxury cars will continue to be hot segments in China going forward, with SUVs and MPVs accounting for 40 percent of firm's overall China growth to 2020.

(Reporting By Matthew Miller; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)