Volkswagen might put its entire commercial vehicles division into a combined MAN/Scania group if MAN and Scania can agree on a friendly merger, the automaker was reported to have said on Monday.
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Reuters noted that, in the past, talk has focused on including only VW’s Brazilian heavy trucks business into a combined group that would be the European truck market leader.
Asked whether it made more sense to integrate the entire VW business into MAN-Scania rather than leaving only a basic light commercial vehicles business, VW commercial vehicles head Stephan Schaller told the news agency: “There are many options and that is one.”
He reportedly told a news conference that light and heavy trucks had more of a common business model than did light trucks and cars.
“A commercial vehicle customer wants a product that can help him do his work. A passenger car is for that reason further away since it is an individual product, where the customer wants to get inside and simply wants to have fun and drive,” he told Reuters.
Schaller was also reported to have said that it would not be easy just to spin off the Brazilian operations, since they were closely integrated into all of his division’s centralised functions such as development and sales.
“Our heavy trucks business is controlled centrally … We’re expanding out into Mexico and South Africa. That only works jointly, and heavy trucks cannot afford it alone relying on its own financial strength,” he added, according to Reuters.
