Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen AG announced Monday plans aimed strengthening its cooperation with Qatar in the fields of research, development and education.
A delegation from German-based Volkswagen, Porsche and the German state of Lower Saxony has visited Qatar and met with key officials from the Arab emirate.
The talks focused on possible research cooperation into new materials, energy production and storage, fuel economy optimization in engines, and the medium-term openings for establishing a vehicle materials test laboratory, VW said.
Along with the German state of Lower Saxony and the luxury sports carmaker Porsche SE, Qatar Holding LLC is one of VW's leading shareholders and is the emirate's biggest single investment.
"The development of modern and resource-efficient vehicles increasingly calls for interdisciplinary cooperation in such diverse fields as electronics and materials science," says Winterkorn.
"Our plans to establish a test laboratory will put us in a position to test new materials under very challenging climatic conditions, thereby extending our leading position in research and development," he said.
© dpa
