(Adds details, quotes in paras 6-9)
SHANGHAI, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG plans to produce 330,000 vehicles at one of its two main auto ventures in China this year, up 18 percent from 2002, a top official at the German company's Chinese partner said on Tuesday.
Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co Ltd, a 50-50 venture between Volkswagen and China's number two carmaker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), had just begun producing its new Gol compact sedan, SAIC chairman Chen Xianglin told Reuters.
"We plan to push more products onto the market this year," Chen said on the sidelines of a ceremony marking the launch of his gearbox joint venture with Volkswagen in Shanghai.
"The price of the Gol would be around 80,000 yuan," around $9,600, but the final price had yet to be finalized, he said.
The Gol would be one of the cheapest foreign-made cars in China, one of the world's fastest-growing markets and a focus for most major automakers in a time of depressed global sales.
Chen did not mention output targets for the Gol four-door, 1.6 litre engine compact car, but Volkswagen Asia-Pacific chief Robert Buchelhofer said last month it could come to around 50,000 vehicles a year.
"We're going to be number one" in car output, Chen said.
Shanghai Volkswagen was also in discussions with customers in the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan, and could export its products to those countries, Chen said without giving details or specifying a timeframe.
Volkswagen's joint ventures control about 40 percent of the passenger car market in China, the European automaker's biggest market outside Germany. Volkswagen delivered about 511,000 vehicles to customers in China in 2002, up 42 percent from 2001. ($1=8.276 Yuan)