FRANKFURT, GERMANY - German carmaker Porsche plans to lower its development costs to below 10% of sales by sharing research centres with takeover target Volkswagen , a top executive told a magazine.

Development expenses currently stand at 15% of sales, boosted by costs to design its latest model, the Panamera, above Porsche's historical average of 10%, management board member Wolfgang Duerheimer told auto motor und sport.

He was quoted on Saturday in an excerpt of an article to be published in next week's edition of the German magazine.

Synergies from the planned VW takeover, such as joint development of hybrid and car electronics technologies as well as bodywork will allow Porsche to reduce the ratio below the 10% average, the executive said.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Anthony Barker)