SAO PAULO, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Fiat Chrysler Group (FCA) announced Monday that it will invest around 14 billion reals (approximately 3.7 billion U.S. dollars) in Latin America by 2022 and release 25 new models in the region.

At an event in Sao Paulo, the FCA President for Latin America Antonio Filosa said that the major part of the investment will take place in Brazil, where 54 percent of its regional sales occur.

Filosa explained that the investment would go towards the launching of new models and the renovation of the Fiat, Jeep, and RAM brands across the region.

"We need new factories in Latin America. We will invest in our product and increase factory efficiency with automation and digitization. We have to reduce the cost of production," he added.

Monday's investment announcement formed part of the 45 billion Euro (52.63 billion U.S. dollars) funding that the company will distribute worldwide to aid in the construction of new factories and develop new products, technologies and innovations.

According to Filosa, the group hopes to increase Latin American sales from 700,000 units to 1.2 million by 2022, with an increase of 5 percent in turnover during the same period.

Fiat Chrysler has the capacity to produce 1.25 million vehicles annually in Latin America, one million of which are manufactured in Brazil.

After Volkswagen and General Motors, FCA is the third largest automobile brand competing in Brazil, having recently lost the market leadership it held for the last decade.

According to the National Federation of Motor Vehicle Distributors, the company had a 12.8 percent share in total Brazilian market sales as of May.

From January to May of 2018, Fiat Chrysler sold 118,900 units in Brazil, representing an 11 percent increase on the same period last year, according to data from the company.