The prime minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff, will hold talks tomorrow (18 March) with Toyota Motor president Katsuaki Watanabe to propose a technological tie-up between Volkswagen and Japanese automakers.
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The German state holds a large stake in Volkswagen, which for a time made Hilux light trucks in Germany for Toyota to sell in Europe as well as a VW version called the Taro.
During talks to be held in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture where Toyota is based, Wulff will propose a tie-up on an emergency alert system to be installed in new cars in the future as a requirement by the European Union, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported.
Similar to systems such as GM’s OnStar in the US, the system uses the global positioning system that will automatically alert an emergency centre if airbags are activated in a car accident.
Lower Saxony is the second-biggest shareholder in VW after Porsche and Wulff sits on the VW board.
