BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group has denied a report in a German business publication Manager Magazin that Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess is interested in acquiring a stake in Tesla.

"Diess would go in right away if he could," the magazine quoted one of Diess' top managers as saying.

"The speculation about buying a stake in Tesla made by Manager Magazin is without merit," a Volkswagen spokesman said in a written statement to Reuters.

Citing company sources, the magazine reported that Diess believes VW could profit from Tesla's competence in the fields of batteries and software.

A big obstacle would be to get the consent of VW's dominating owner families, the Piechs and the Porsches.

A banker close to VW said Diess would love to have Tesla's software developers but it is almost impossible to justify paying $30 billion to buy the whole company, the report said.