Herbert Diess should concentrate on the big picture in the VW group in the future. After the increasing criticism of the past few weeks, this can also be seen as a certain loss of power.
Wolfsburg (dpa) - VW CEO Herbert Diess hands over the management of the core brand to the previous co-managing director Ralf Brandstätter. This was announced by the supervisory board of the world's largest car manufacturer after a special meeting in Wolfsburg.
Diess, who, as chairman of the brand board, was also responsible for the division with the VW logo and had come under criticism for technical problems, was to get "more freedom for his duties as CEO".
In the future, Diess will primarily be responsible for managing the entire Volkswagen Group. However, he still has "overall responsibility for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars division and the Volume brand group" on the Group Executive Board, as it was said. "The goal is a stronger focus on the respective tasks at the top of the group and brand in the ongoing transformation phase of the automotive industry."
Brandstätter had already managed important areas of day-to-day business for the VW core brand. As of July 1st, the previous "Chief Operating Officer" is now alone at the helm. "He has successfully led Volkswagen as COO in the past two years and helped shape the transformation at a crucial point," said Diess, who was also responsible for the core division. Recently, technology and communication problems had accumulated here.
The pressure on Diess, who came to VW from BMW in summer 2015, has increased in recent weeks. Above all, it was heard from the workforce and the powerful works council that he had to make the ongoing difficulties in the production of the Golf 8 and the new electric car ID.3 a top priority and show more presence in production. In addition, there was criticism of the entire management of the preparation of the shit storm for a racist golf advertising video on the Internet. The influential IG Metall shop stewards said employees were "massively concerned" about the image that VW was giving.
At first there had been speculation that Porsche boss Oliver Blume would move to Wolfsburg as the new head of the core brand and that he could be replaced by the previous Skoda boss Bernhard Maier. Now it came down to Brandstätter, who was very experienced in Wolfsburg.
