Volkswagen unexpectedly ousts CEO Herbert Diess
Last Friday, Volkswagen’s supervisory board surprisingly announced the replacement of CEO Herbert Diess. His successor is the current Porsche CEO Oliver Blume. Now speculation is running riot as to the reasons.
The decision by Volkswagen’s supervisory board was unanimous, according to the company. Diess will remain in office until 1 September, before handing over the chair to Blume. The separation from Diess was amicable, according to Volkswagen.
Diess has been at the helm of Volkswagen since April 2018, having previously served on the board of BMW, where he was initially in charge of purchasing and, since 2012, of development. Diess also held a seat on the supervisory board of Infineon for a time. Diess’s term of office saw decisive changes in the company’s course – above all, Diess drove forward the switch to electric drive, the entry into battery cell production and the digitalisation of vehicle electronics. Under Diess, for example, Volkswagen founded its own software company, Cariad, which is responsible for the entire vehicle software, including the operating systems, for almost the entire Volkswagen Group.
However, Diess was regarded as not very sociable, as an assertive but not very team-oriented manager. In connection with Diess’ replacement, there is talk in the media of friction with other group brands, namely Audi. Diess had also tangled with the powerful employee representatives on the supervisory board. In addition, Diess could be blamed for the fact that the software development at Cariad was mainly in the headlines because of breakdowns and problems.
His designated successor Oliver Blume, on the other hand, is considered to be very team-oriented and consensus-driven. Probably the most important factor behind the rochade however could be the fact that Blume enjoys the trust of the Porsche and Piech family clans, which have a great deal of influence in the VW Group with their high shareholdings.
With regard to technical development, it is to be expected that Blume will continue the changes started by Diess and possibly even accelerate them. Only at the end of June, at an automotive electronics congress, Blume had announced Porsche’s goal of achieving 80% of its sales with battery-electric models by 2030.
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