Volkswagen has dampened Karmann’s hopes for new contract assembly projects.
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“At the current time there is no concrete project for a cooperation between VW and Karmann,” a company spokesperson told dpa-AFX.
Volkswagen is, however, of the view that Karmann has a huge amount of potential and know-how, reported the news agency.
Karmann has announced it will cut 1,770 out of a total of 5,000 jobs if it does not win a new vehicle assembly project. It was reportedly in the bidding to win a contract to assembly the Mini SAV, but narrowly lost out to Magna before Christmas.
There have been reports that Karmann was also not successful in winning a contract to assemble a Kia cabriolet.
Karmann’s last hope appears to be Volkswagen, which is reportedly considering contracting out assembly of a small cabriolet based on the Polo.
Yesterday, Christian Wulff, the president of Lower Saxony, which owns 20% of Volkswagen, said that he thought Karmann would win a new contract from Volkswagen in coming months. He was speaking at a meeting ahead of elections at the end of this month.
