Enlarge image
Will remain in office:
VW boss Herbert Diess
Photo: imago stock / imago images / rheinmainfoto
It should be a day of big decisions, with a range of topics and pressure of expectations like it has not been for a long time.
At Volkswagen, key decisions will be made tomorrow, Thursday (December 9th) - including the whereabouts of CEO Herbert Diess.
The 63-year-old's position has been shaky for weeks, but recently a compromise was looming with the workers' camp: Diess is allowed to remain VW boss, but his power is limited by the appointment of a new VW brand management board.
The trigger for the culture war at VW were savings proposals around a turbulent meeting of the committee in September, which had not previously been discussed with the influential works council.
But even beyond the top personalities of Diess, managers and controllers of the largest German company had to rework on a number of points - for example, in the specification of billion-dollar investment projects, the workforce and other management positions.
For example, Hauke Stars is to be appointed as IT director, and Manfred Döss is to replace Hiltrud Werner as director of law and compliance.
Originally, the group wanted to have cleared the essential questions in mid-November, now everything came down to December 9th as an alternative date.
Here too, "everything is in flux" right up to the end, as a source from the local area said.
Diess contra Cavallo: The mediation committee should smooth things over
This is what Volkswagen wants to lead further into e-mobility and digitization at high speed.
On the part of the works council, IG Metall and partly also the state of Lower Saxony, his sometimes rough, provocative tone and his communication, which was sometimes perceived as unpredictable, often aroused alienation.
A mediation committee of the supervisory board met several times to look for solutions and at the same time to smooth the turmoil between Diess and the VW works council boss Daniela Cavallo.
Until recently, it was unclear whether there was a compromise.
Planning package "PR70" and the billions in investments for the coming years
In terms of content, the annual autumn round is actually about spending on the global network of locations.
This is accompanied by the distribution of models, components and development budgets - and of course the utilization of the plants with possible consequences for the jobs.
The entire automotive industry is looking particularly excitedly at the 70th planning package ("PR70") from VW this year.
Among other things, Volkswagen had already set the goal of building an additional factory for the fully digitized Trinity electric vehicle near the main plant in Wolfsburg.
The pending approval of the 20-member supervisory board is now more likely to be a matter of form.
Works council wants another battery cell plant in Germany and an electric model for Wolfsburg
And there are other topics that were discussed intensively. This includes the question of where exactly the next six European battery cell plants are going. The works council had called for at least one more cell plant in Germany. The question of whether and when a separate electric model can be located in Wolfsburg in addition to Trinity is also controversial. One could hear about the takeover of parts of the production of the ID series from Saxony, at least during peak times with high demand. The VW headquarters are currently only weakly utilized due to the supply crisis for microchips.
In view of the controversy over the style and future of Diess in recent weeks, however, these issues have almost completely receded into the background.
After a dispute between the CEO and the long-time works council boss Bernd Osterloh over the implementation of austerity programs and the work pressure on the lines had flared up in previous years, Osterloh's successor Daniela Cavallo attacked the manager sharply in the wake of the September meeting of the supervisors.
Entry into Formula 1?
Mind games that at VW up to 30,000 or even 35,000 positions could become superfluous in the coming years, Cavallo called "substantive nonsense". Diess should rather concentrate on the development of a solid strategy against the current semiconductor shortage and on concrete commitments for the Wolfsburg plant, she demanded. The CEO countered that he had been misunderstood with regard to the rumored figures. At the same time he emphasized that the headquarters had to stretch in order to keep up with the competition. In addition to the Causa Diess, some additional personnel decisions could also be made at the end of the planning round.
The motorsport world could also look to Wolfsburg.
Again and again there was speculation about a Formula 1 entry by VW - representatives of the subsidiaries Audi and Porsche should at least be involved in preliminary talks about new technologies for partially electrified engines.
The World Motorsport Federation will meet on December 15th, so any approval of the relevant plans would come in good time.
la / dpa
