Volkswagen replaces Herbert Diess as CEO, Ralf Brandstaetter to take over

Losing direct responsibility for the VW brand marks a setback for Diess after he decided to assume both jobs when taking the reins at the world’s larg
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File photo: Ralf Brandstaetter, CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand gestures in front of the revised logo of German carmaker Volkswagen. (Reuters)
File photo: Ralf Brandstaetter, CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand gestures in front of the revised logo of German carmaker Volkswagen.

Volkswagen replaced Herbert Diess as chief executive of the VW brand on Monday and installed chief operating officer Ralf Brandstaetter to lead cost cutting efforts at the company's largest plants in Germany.

The management reshuffle comes after weeks of squabbling between Volkswagen's powerful labour leaders and managers over the pace and scale of cost cutting plans to free up resources for a radical shift toward electric cars.

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Volkswagen said Brandstaetter would take over on July 1 to give Diess, who remains group chief executive, more leeway to run the rest of the company, which includes brands such as Audi, Bentley, Skoda, Lamborghini and Porsche.

“Ralf Brandstaetter is one of the company’s most experienced managers," Diess said in a statement. “I am therefore very pleased that Ralf Brandstaetter will be forging ahead with the development of the brand as CEO."

Volkswagen said Diess retained overall responsibility for Volkswagen passenger cars and that the management reshuffle would also result in the departure of procurement and components chief Stefan Sommer.

Sommer joined VW in 2018 and oversaw ambitious procurement plans, including the construction of large factories to power Volkswagen's ambitious electrification shift as the carmaker encountered supply bottlenecks.

Earlier on Monday, sources told Reuters that Volkswagen's supervisory board was hosting an extraordinary meeting to discuss replacing Diess as CEO of the VW brand.

Also Read : Volkswagen board to review internal probe into racist car ad

Diess is trying to get the company's powerful labour leaders, who control nine of the 19 seats on the supervisory board, to agree to painful costs cuts.

The savings are designed to help pay for a 34 billion euro (29.89 billion pounds) investment in electric and autonomous cars and 50 billion euros for EV battery procurement.

Also Read : Before exit, Diess praised Elon Musk’s SpaceX success to motivate top executives

Diess also came under pressure after Volkswagen was forced to halt sales of its newest VW Golf model because of software glitches at a time when the company is preparing to mass produce VW's ID.3 electric car.

First Published Date: 09 Jun 2020, 09:37 AM IST
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