For a long time there was a thick air between the VW CEO and some inspectors in Wolfsburg.
A sensitive topic: Diess' alleged urge to renew the contract early.
Now it suddenly works.
Wolfsburg - Herbert Diess is to remain CEO of Volkswagen until autumn 2025.
That was decided by the supervisory board.
The top manager should therefore receive a new contract for around four more years, as the supervisory board said in the evening.
So far, Diess was appointed CEO of the largest European car manufacturer until spring 2023.
Formally, it is now a new contract that should run until October 2025.
The decision on the former head of BMW development, who initially moved to Volkswagen as head of the core brand in the summer of 2015, is likely to surprise some in the industry at the moment.
Last year there had been heated discussions about a possible early extension, which Diess himself is said to have vigorously called for, according to several insiders from the group environment.
Normally, however, negotiations on a continuation are not held until one year before the expiry, even in Wolfsburg.
At the end of October 2025, Diess will be 67 years old.
The agreement that has now been made is the owner's commitment to his course.
He is comprehensively converting the Volkswagen Group in the direction of electromobility and digitization.
Billions are flowing into new models, more networking, our own software technologies and low-carbon production.
Diess is said to have tried last year to push through an extension of his contract well before the usual decision-making time.
Because the time was officially not even an issue from the point of view of several supervisory boards, the manager, who likes to be brisk and gripping, initially ignored his request.
Some inspectors felt unduly pressured by efforts to influence the agenda of their deliberations.
In the meantime, supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch had to do a lot of mediation work. With regard to the announcement of the new contract, he now said: “The Supervisory Board will also see in the coming years under the leadership of Dr. These are the best prerequisites for the continued successful development of the entire company, especially with a view to Strategy 2030. “The overall orientation for the next nine years, which Diess was instrumental in working out, is to be presented in more detail on Tuesday (July 13th).
Diess is valued in the group and in large parts of the auto industry for its determination to transform the largest German company. At the same time, he repeatedly got into disputes with the powerful ex-works council boss and supervisor Bernd Osterloh. The speed of the restructuring, including the cancellation of a few thousand jobs, repeatedly met with criticism from the workforce representatives. In addition, there was Diess' handling of the increasing workload on the production lines as well as technical breakdowns during the introduction of the important volume models Golf 8 and ID.3. For his part, he declared that he wanted to break open structures.
The disputes escalated to a scandal in the summer of 2020 when the CEO accused members of the supervisory board of criminal behavior and “lack of integrity” through indiscretions.
He later apologized.
On the other hand, advocates backed the manager and emphasized that Volkswagen should not rush to rely on other management staff in the middle of the renovation.
Osterloh has not been in Wolfsburg since the beginning of May, he went to Munich as head of personnel at VW commercial vehicle holding company Traton.
His successor at the head of the works council and in the presidium of the VW supervisory board, Daniela Cavallo, had announced that she wanted to represent the interests of the workforce just as resolutely.
dpa