New VW CEO wants change. Fast
frankfurt — Volkswagen’s new CEO said on Friday that the automaker must “significantly step up the pace” as it pushes ahead with electric and self-driving vehicle technologies and offers transportation as a digitally driven service.
Herbert Diess said that a newly-announced management structure bundling the company’s dozen brands in just three divisions would mean faster decisions as the company keeps up with sweeping change in how people use cars.
The 59-year-old Diess was named on Thursday as the German automaker’s new CEO, replacing Matthias Mueller. Mueller had been tapped as CEO unexpectedly in September 2015 when Martin Winterkorn resigned over the scandal in which the company had rigged carts to cheat on US emissions tests.
As CEO, Diess will also be responsible for the company’s mass market brands Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda, as well as digital services and vehicle software. Luxury group Audi will be placed in a separate premium division and high-end brands Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini in a super-premium group.
Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said Diess would have a chief operating officer to oversee day to day issues at the volume segment so that he would not lose focus on the company has a whole. That executive has not been named.
Speaking at a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, Diess said the company’s goal would be “to forcefully and with focus press ahead” with the company’s Strategy 2025. The plan involves adding 30 battery-powered vehicles by 2025 and tapping new revenue possibilities by focusing on offering temporary use of autos as a service.
Diess came to Volkswagen in 2015 as head of the core nameplate from competitor BMW, where he was head of vehicle development. His first job was hammering out a 2016 costcutting agreement with the company’s powerful labour representatives. The deal foresees raising German factory productivity by 25 per cent and dropping 23,000 jobs through attrition but expressly rules out layoffs.