LONDON - BMW AG's Rolls-Royce is adding 200 employees to meet demand from China for its 200,000-pound (US$380,000) luxury Phantom cars, a news report said Thursday.

Chief Executive Ian Robertson says China has become Rolls-Royce's No. 3 market after the United States and Britain, due to its growing class of entrepreneurs, the Times of London reported.

The staff additions will raise the size of Rolls-Royce's workforce at its plant in Goodwood, England, to 700, the newspaper said.

Rolls-Royce expects to sell 800 Phantoms this year, the highest level in 16 years, the newspaper said. It didn't say how many of those cars would be sold in China.

Other luxury car makers including Britain's Bentley, a unit of Volkswagen AG, have seen sales surge in China as racing economic growth creates a wealthy elite.