Lopez Remarks Lead to Confusion : Autos: VW purchasing chief sends mixed signals about plans for a super- efficient plant in Spain.

Volkswagen purchasing chief Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua sent out mixed signals Monday about his company’s plans for a new super-efficient car factory in Spain’s Basque region.

Lopez issued a statement at a Hanover, Germany, news conference, saying the plant will be a “laboratory production facility.”

But later, at a Madrid news conference, he said the innovative facility will produce new cars.

“It will be what can be called a plant,” Lopez said.

Construction of the plant in Lopez’s home region is reportedly one of the big reasons he decided to jump to Volkswagen from General Motors Corp., where he turned heads with his aggressive cost-cutting campaign in the GM parts operation.

Lopez’s comments Monday sparked confusion among observers.

In the Hanover statement, he said, “The intention is not to set up a new automobile manufacturing plant but rather a laboratory for production technology.”

Quizzed by reporters in Madrid about the apparent contradiction, Lopez said he had not read the Hanover statement and that the company had not made a final decision on the facility’s function.

GM has said it may take legal action if Lopez and Volkswagen move ahead on the project. GM claims Lopez stole information on a similar project when he abruptly left the company for Volkswagen in March.

Lopez is under investigation by German state prosecutors over allegations from GM’s German unit, Adam Opel, that he removed company documents when he left to join Volkswagen. Lopez and Volkswagen have strenuously denied that documents were taken.

“We are in a free continent and are free to develop concepts and do what’s best for our customers,” Lopez told reporters here at his first news conference since he joined Volkswagen in March as head of production and purchasing. “If we consider that a new plant is what’s best for our customers, we’ll build it and no one can tell us not to.”

The plant is to be constructed in Amorebieta, 200 miles north of Madrid.

Lopez, a devout cost cutter who describes competition against Japanese car makers as a crusade, has long dreamed of building a super-efficient auto plant in the Basque region.

News reports on the plant said it will cost $525 million. Lopez would not comment Monday on how much the plant will cost or how much money it will save.

In his Hanover statement, he said the purpose of the facility will be to test new manufacturing technology, with the goal of producing a small car in less than 12 hours, the norm for Japanese manufacturers, he said. He did not say how long it now takes Volkswagen to manufacture a car.

“The only way to produce the lowest-priced car in the world involves making an entirely new start, with a new plant,” he said at the Hanover news conference.

“The current position of our automobile industry and its suppliers isn’t equal to (the) international standard,” with Japanese competitors holding an edge, he said.

Lopez confirmed that talks are underway with a Spanish group of banks and companies that had made an offer to SEAT, Volkswagen’s Spanish unit, to help finance the Spanish venture.