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 newspaper that more r&d will be done in China in the future.

Eventually, VW's Chinese operations want to cease imports of components from outside China altogether, the newspaper reported.

"Electric motors should be developed and produced locally," Vahland told the newspaper 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 is quoted as saying.

The need to boost local production and development is driven in part by high import tariffs, the newspaper said.

VW wants to boost revenues from its China operations to 30 billion euros in 2010, according to the report.

Earlier this month Volkswagen said it will build a new factory in China.

Volkswagen plans to launch full-electric vehicles in 2013 and expects these zero-emission vehicles to account for 3 percent of its planned 10 million annual sales by 2018.

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.