Volkswagen plans to boost output by 18% to 330,000 vehicles at one of its two main auto ventures in China this year, a top official at the company’s Chinese partner told Reuters on Tuesday.
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Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co Ltd, a 50-50 venture between Volkswagen and China’s number two car maker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., had just begun producing its new Gol compact sedan, SAIC chairman Chen Xianglin told Reuters.
According to the news agency, Volkswagen is gearing up to expand output capacity in the world’s fastest-growing car market, racing to keep pace with the ballooning demand that analysts foresee in the next few years.
“We plan to push more products onto the market this year,” Chen told Reuters at a ceremony marking the launch of a $US96 million 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 finalised, Chen told Reuters. The Gol would be one of the cheapest foreign-made cars in China, a haven for car makers coping with depressed global sales, Reuters noted.
The news agency said the new entry-level Volkswagen would cost less than rivals produced by Ford and General Motors, who are showing signs of starting their own price war in the cut-throat Chinese market.
According to Reuters, Volkswagen’s Asia-Pacific chief Robert Buchelhofer said last month that annual output for the four-door, 1.6 litre compact car could reach around 50,000 vehicles a year.
Chen told Reuters that Shanghai Volkswagen was also in talks over exports to the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan but did not give details.
According to Reuters, Volkswagen’s joint ventures have about 40% of the car market in China, the company’s biggest market outside Germany. Volkswagen delivered about 511,000 vehicles to Chinese customers in 2002, up 42% from 2001, the report added.
