Volkswagen's Chinese unit is set to become more autonomous from its German parent by cutting its reliance on auto components and expertise imported from outside China, the Financial Times Deutschland said.
Winfried Vahland, the head of Volkswagen Group China told the German paper that more research and development will be done in China going forward.
Eventually, VW's Chinese operations want to cease imports of components from outside China altogether, the paper said.
"Electric motors should be developed and produced locally," Vahland told the paper in an interview, according to an advance copy of the paper's Friday edition.
"That factor alone, means we have to expand the development capacities," Vahland told the paper.
The need to boost local production and development is driven in part by high import tariffs, FTD said.
VW wants to boost revenues from its China operations to 30 billion euros in 2010, the FTD said.
In July, Volkswagen said it will build a new factory in China [ID:nWEA9585].
Volkswagen plans to launch all-electric vehicles in 2013 and expects these zero-emission vehicles to account for 3 percent of sales by 2018. [ID:nN19221052]
In May, Volkswagen announced that Karl-Thomas Neumann will succeed Vahland as China chief in September. Vahland will then take on the role as head of Skoda, another brand owned by Volkswagen.
