Volkswagen
This should remain VW CEO – new role on the board
VW CEO Herbert Diess during the IAA in Munich. Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
There has long been a thick air between the VW CEO and some of his controllers. After all sorts of rumors, there is now clarity: Herbert Diess remains in the group management.
After several weeks of power struggle with parts of the supervisory board, VW CEO Herbert Diess is to keep his office.
In addition, however, the head of the Volkswagen core brand, Ralf Brandstätter, will be promoted to the Board of Management in the new year. The company announced on Thursday. In the future, Diess himself will primarily take care of strategic issues in the largest European car group, such as the new Cariad software division.
The overall control of the mass brands such as VW, Skoda, Seat and light commercial vehicles will initially continue to fall to the CEO – at least until the middle of the year, as Diess said. However, from the summer onwards Brandstätter will be responsible for the important and recently significantly weaker China business that was previously assigned to Diess. After a handover phase, Skoda boss Thomas Schäfer will take over responsibility for the main brand VW Passenger Cars.
In addition, further personal details were decided. For example, the former Deutsche Börse manager Hauke Stars is supposed to occupy the new IT area in the group’s executive board in February – Volkswagen had to search a long time for a variant that failed at the last minute. The previous chief legal advisor Manfred Döss takes over the legal department from Hiltrud Werner. Audi manager Hildegard Wortmann will also be the board member for group sales.
No complaints about lack of responsibility
Diess explained that he did not see the new structure and the expansion of the top management team as a restriction of their own competencies: “I cannot complain about a lack of responsibility.” There were intensive discussions. In the direction of the works council and the state of Lower Saxony, which is a major shareholder, he said: “We will coordinate our communication more in the future. I believe that we can intensify the dialogue. “
The decisions were preceded by speculation about Diess’ future. The situation had been extremely tense since the end of September. Supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch had to mediate again. That was anything but good, said Pötsch on Thursday. However, after a period of avoidable uncertainty, there is an opportunity to “constructively advance” important issues.
There was another confrontation with the works council after Diess is said to have thought out loud in a meeting of the control committee about the possibly necessary cancellation of tens of thousands of jobs. Previously, according to information from corporate circles, he had also asked other managers for further savings suggestions – bypassing the very influential workforce representation at VW.
Sharp attacks by the works council
Works council chief Daniela Cavallo had then attacked Diess publicly both internally and in a works meeting. On Thursday she said she considered the differences ticked off for the time being. She is also optimistic “that we can work together sensibly on these issues”. At the same time she warned: “I have no interest in our reading about such conflicts in public on a daily basis. That also does something to the workforce. ” Controversial points of view, however, are in the nature of things.
Lower Saxony, as the second largest shareholder, had also indicated that it would no longer fully support Diess’ style. Prime Minister and co-supervisor Stephan Weil spoke of an atmosphere of “uncertainty that is spreading everywhere”. On Thursday he only commented on the investment plans: VW had “consistently continued on the path of transformation into a completely new world of (car) mobility”.
The group is again significantly increasing its spending on the global plant network and new technologies in the new five-year cycle. The total is 159 billion euros. More than half of this flows into topics such as e-mobility, networking and software. These are again increases compared to the previous year. The chances are also good to increase the profit margin clearly, it said from the group.
Confusion about interpretation
With reference to the at best average profitability of the core brand VW in the industry comparison, Diess wanted to discuss possible surplus positions of up to 30,000 or 35,000. There has been confusion about the interpretation and the exact extent of any cuts. Cavallo was also bothered by the fact that, from their point of view, Diess does not have a sufficiently solid strategy against the semiconductor supply crisis. Instead, he prefers to complete PR appointments and pose with Tesla boss Elon Musk.
The main plant in Wolfsburg in particular is underutilized due to the shortage of microchips, and there is always short-time work. In 2021, as few cars could be manufactured here as last at the end of the 1950s. Works councils had also requested another electric model for the location – regardless of the Trinity planned from 2026.
Regardless of the disputes, Diess is highly regarded in the auto industry as a whole. Many investors consider his change of direction in the direction of e-mobility and software to be courageous and essential. In principle, many works councils and employees have nothing to complain about – on the contrary, they also see the need for rapid changes. Diess’ approach came here as provocative and increasingly unpredictable, while it was at least not openly criticized on the capital side. As the main shareholders, the Porsche and Piëch families expressly supported the manager on several occasions.