Volkswagen Group is holding talks with Huawei Technologies on establishing a joint venture to allow the Chinese tech giant to help it develop autonomous driving vehicles, according to Jiemian, a Shanghai-based business website.
VW will become a majority shareholder of the partnership, Jiemian reported Wednesday, citing a source with information about the talks.
The deal, if finalized, will effectively make Huawei a tier-one autonomous technology supplier to the German auto giant, it noted.
Su Jing, former head of Huawei’s intelligent driving product line, will join the VW-Huawei joint venture to lead its product development, the source was also cited as saying.
Su left Huawei in January, according to Jiemian.
For several months, VW executives have been negotiating with Huawei about acquiring the latter’s autonomous driving unit, German business magazine Manager Magazin, reported last week.
VW has long been the largest automaker in China. Despite a 14 percent drop caused by global semiconductor chip crunch, it delivered some 3.3 million cars and light trucks in the market, well above GM’s local volume of 2.9 million.