Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest automaker, anticipates that the cooperation between its Scania AB unit and MAN SE will accelerate and lead to parts and technology sharing.
A partnership between the two heavy-truck makers could be similar to the type of component sharing that Volkswagen does with compact cars such as its best-selling VW Golf, which provides the basis for Seat, Skoda, and Audi models, said Ferdinand Piech, chairman of Volkswagen and MAN.
"As soon as there're new models, you'll see the next steps," Piech said yesterday at a Volkswagen event before the Geneva auto show. There should be "faster" progress in the cooperation after a reorganization at MAN that included the appointment of Georg Pachta-Reyhofen as chief executive officer, he said.
Volkswagen owns 30 percent of MAN. Piech, who previously served as Volkswagen CEO, said in Frankfurt last September that Wolfsburg, Germany-based automaker may add two additional brands. Since then, Volkswagen has acquired a 19.9 percent stake in Japan's Suzuki Motors Corp.
Hakan Samuelsson abruptly quit as MAN CEO in November amid a bribery scandal, making way for Pachta-Reyhofen. Samuelsson's departure removes a key obstacle to a three-way combination of Munich-based MAN, Volkswagen and Soedertaelje, Sweden-based Scania to create Europe's largest truckmaker, analysts said at the time.
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