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Chinese carmakers and components makers stealing styles of parts or maybe entire vehicles from Western automakers is nothing new, however we have a tendency to rarely see these problems taking off within the open after they happen. And if you're wondering why, it's as a result of foreign firms don't desire to disrupt their business within the country.
However, on Friday, German business daily Handelsblatt reported that the Volkswagen cluster is investigating allegations that its Chinese producing partner FAW cluster Corp. illegally copied and made transmissions, engines and different parts owned by VW.
A Volkswagen spokesman in Germany was quoted by the Wall Street Journal saying that the corporate "was examining matters fastidiously before returning to any conclusions".
It was reported that VW managers recently uncovered FAW's plans to repeat the German automaker's MQ200 transmission found in many Audi, Skoda and VW models and use it on the Besturn B50 little sedan, to be sold in Russia where it'll compete against similar models from VW and Skoda.
The article on Handelsblatt notes this can be not the primary time that VW has had an intellectual property dispute with its Chinese partner, as at the tip of 2010, the Germans discovered plans from FAW to duplicate and build its EA111 petrol engine used on a good kind of models together with the popular Polo and Golf hatchbacks.
Volkswagen AG CEO Martin Winterkor confronted FAW cluster chairman Xu Jianyi concerning the matter together with his Chinese counterpart replying that he would investigate. FAW's response came a number of months later with the corporate blaming an engineer who had "misunderstood something".
The German newspaper said that within the meantime, numerous engineering sources revealed that FAW had already engineered a factory in Changchun and had begun producing the EA111 gasoline unit!
VW's agreement with FAW is to make engines and different components completely for his or her joint-venture merchandise. "The plans were never allowed to travel outside," said a VW manager who wanted to stay anonymous.
The problem stems from the very fact that China doesn't enable foreign firms to work within the country alone forcing them to share technologies and experience with native partners through joint ventures. VW fashioned its partnership with FAW back in 1991.
"Western firms will solely make sure that their merchandise are as tough to repeat as doable. Everything else is sort of a fight against a windmill," an auto analyst told the German newspaper. "Chinese firms will copy concerning eighty p.c of a product perfectly, however then it gets tough," he said.
Nevertheless, when the AFP contacted VW concerning the Handelsblatt article, an organization spokesman told the news agency: "We're examining the problem terribly closely. On the opposite hand, we've perpetually worked along with FAW terribly successfully and really trustfully within the past."
As reported by the WSJ, these latest allegations come back at a time when VW has already approved a €14 billion (US$17.2 billion) investment in China through a pair of016, because the German carmaker plans to elevate its annual production capability within the country to four million vehicles by 2018.
