Volkswagen has rejected a newspaper report that it has halted technology transfers of its Santana sedans to joint venture partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), according to the Xinhua news agency.
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“The statements made in the China Business Post about the stop of knowledge transfer from VW to SAIC are not true,” Volkswagen Group China spokeswoman Melanie Behrens said in remarks reported by Xinhua.
“We do not know where these claims came from and are still working on the subject, trying to clarify the situation.”
The China Business Post reported Monday that Volkswagen had decided against the further transfer of a technical platform for the sedan model. It said SAIC had invested large sums in the scheduled acquisition of the platform, including acquiring an auto manufacturing plant in Yizheng city in eastern Jiangsu province.
The reported plan was for SAIC to produce a new sedan model designed on the Santana platform, with the car set to be launched in May.
It said the termination was due in part to Volkswagen’s adjustment of its China strategies and to ineffective communication with its Chinese partners.
Many Chinese carmakers with overseas venture partners have been researching and developing cars independently or with subsidiaries and this has emerged as a sensitive issue with Western partners.
