National Post (National Edition)
VW unable to solidify new Audi interim chief
Schot’s elevation meets resistance from board
FRANKFURT/BERLIN • Volkswagen AG’S board was unable to agree on a new leader for its Audi unit after more than six hours of debate Monday, with some members balking at making a hasty choice after the unexpected arrest of the brand’s longtime chief.
Plans by VW stakeholders to quickly appoint Audi sales boss Bram Schot as the unit’s interim chief executive officer following the arrest of Rupert Stadler encountered resistance at a meeting of supervisory board members, and it’s unclear when the situation will be resolved, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The supervisory board members of VW and Audi haven’t reached a decision yet today and continue to explore the situation,” the automaker said in an emailed statement late Monday. A company spokesman declined to elaborate. Stadler’s arrest, over his role in the manufacturer’s diesel-emissions scandal, is the first among VW group’s management board members.
Board members had planned a routine gathering at the headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, but they were caught by surprise by Stadler’s arrest, and the gettogether quickly escalated into a crisis meeting, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations aren’t public. Audi is the VW group’s largest profit contributor and it can ill-afford a vacuum at the top. Stadler was arrested earlier Monday at his home in Ingolstadt, Germany.
With Schot, Audi’s head of sales and marketing since September, VW would be going with an executive so far untainted by the emissions scandal. The 56-year-old joined VW from Daimler AG in 2011, holding positions at the commercial-vehicles unit. But some opposition emerged to choosing Schot, and the parties — including board members, labour representatives and government officials — will review options on Tuesday, said the people.
Stadler’s arrest raises fresh questions about Volkswagen’s crisis management that’s alternated between stonewalling and cooperation, while protecting its most senior managers amid swirling allegations that some of the key leaders might have been informed earlier about the diesel-engine cheating than they acknowledged so far.
Munich prosecutors sought to take Stadler, 55, into custody because of the risk he may tamper with evidence, they said in a statement. Prosecutors acted after wiretapping his phone, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported. Last week, authorities raided his house and named him a suspect in their probe of fraud and falsifying public documents in relation to selling diesel cars in Europe.
Stadler is willing to be questioned later this week and his lawyers won’t challenge his arrest for now, prosecutor Stephan Necknig said. Investigators had indications Stadler, who hasn’t been charged, may influence witnesses in the probe, he said. Pretrial detention can last as long as three months and can be extended while cooperative suspects usually leave custody much faster.
The arrest, which comes days after Volkswagen agreed to pay a US$1.2 billion (one-billion-euro) fine imposed by German prosecutors, spells more trouble at the top of one of Volkswagen’s critically-important divisions. Stadler oversees a unit that generates vital profits and provides technology including engines to a number of the group’s brands — including Porsche.
Even if Stadler wasn’t directly involved in the dieselengine manipulation, there has been an obvious lack of oversight at Audi that stretched over years, Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Metzler Bank, said by phone.
Volkswagen declined 3.1 per cent Monday to 156.06 euros, the lowest since February, extending losses this year to 6.2 per cent.
Stadler has led Audi since 2007. VW’S controlling Porsche and Piech families had so far backed him despite a constant drumbeat of allegations ever since Audi got embroiled in the diesel scandal in November 2015. Initially rejecting U.S. regulators’ claims it used illegal engine software, the carmaker has struggled to put an end to a drip-feed of negative diesel-related headlines as German authorities stepped up scrutiny on its domestic market as well.
Ulrich Weiss, a former top engineer at Audi’s engine development operation, told a German labour court last year Stadler had been aware of the illegal software earlier than he admitted. Weiss and Audi have since settled the legal dispute over his firing.