RE: Matthias Mueller announced as VW CEO

RE: Matthias Mueller announced as VW CEO

Friday 25th September 2015

Matthias Mueller announced as VW CEO

Huge VW reshuffle sees Mueller brought in from Porsche, more regional autonomy and new brand segments



So as we all predicted, Porsche chairman Matthias Mueller has been named as the new VW CEO by the Supervisory Board. He will continue in the Porsche role - a job he has held since 2010 - until a replacement has been found; there's been a very confusing round of musical chairs in the VW Group just announced so we'll deal with that soon.

Vahland a name you will see more of
Vahland a name you will see more of
Of his new position, Mueller said: "My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group - by leaving no stone unturned", which sounds like an unenviable task given the current climate. He spoke of "stringent compliance" and "innovative strength" as key to emerging from the crisis in an even stronger position. A tough job but VW clearly has faith; his contract runs until 2020.

There are however plenty of new names to learn in the Group shake up. The discovery of the 'defeat devices' and their implications has led to a wholesale restructuring. Interim Chairman of the Supervisory Board Berthold Huber describes it as a reorganisation which "strengthens the brands and regions, gives the Group Board of Management the necessary leeway for strategy... and lays a focus on the targeted development of future-oriented fields." Don't worry, it gets more confusing after that...

Predictably enough American operations are a strong focus. From November 1, VW's activities in the USA, Canada and Mexico will be 'combined and significantly strengthened' into one new North America region. Mexico will surely be overjoyed at that. It will be governed by Prof. Dr. Winfried Vahland, who was Chairman of the Board at Skoda. This takes him onto the VW Board of Management, with his Skoda position taken up by Bernhard Maier, who was responsible for Sales and Marketing at Porsche. Maier does not yet have a replacement. Interestingly and quite surprisingly, Michael Horn keeps his job. Who? President and CEO of VW Group of America. Right...

Welcome to VW Herr Diess!
Welcome to VW Herr Diess!
From the American reshuffle comes the news of VW being separated into a management structure with four regions, each led by a local CEO (names TBC at this point) who will report directly to Chairman Herbert Diess. Of course streamlining is mentioned behind this move but also 'strengthening the brands and regional accountability, surely with an eye to avoid future Group CEO resignations. Indeed Huber goes one step further, stating that the brands will have "greater independence" in production and therefore "that they should also hold the responsibility for these activities." To that end the production department at a Group level has been immediately abolished, with the new management model to be implemented at the start of next year. Reducing complexity should mean urgent issues are dealt with more, well, urgently. Let's see.

The reorganisation goes further still, the global products now focusing on four segments: volume, premium, sport and commercial vehicles. A 'brand group' will take charge of each section so there's a new Porsche brand group with Bugatti and Bentley dealing with the 'sportscar and mid-engine toolkit.' Given Wolfgang Durheimer already heads up Bugatti and Bentley, could he take on Mueller's role at Porsche and lead that group? The premium stuff will be Audi, Lamborghini and Ducati with VW, Skoda and SEAT the volume brands. There is no further news on the commercial vehicles. Another new department is being created to ensure that the 'toolkit strategy' can be closely monitored by Mueller. And if you're confused by 'toolkit', think of the MQB that underpins so many VW cars at the moment; more than a platform and therefore a toolkit in VW speak.

Don't be surprised to see this happen again
Don't be surprised to see this happen again
Nearly there. On the staffing front, there have been rumours of both Ulrich Hackenberg and Wolfgang Hatz being suspended rather than dismissed but that's unofficial right now. The most notable confirmed dismissal is that of Christian Klinger, who was 'member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft with responsibility for Sales and Marketing and member of the Volkswagen brand Board of Management with responsibility for Sales and Marketing' . Though apparently it is 'not related to recent events'. Yeah. Former SEAT Chairman Jurgen Stackmann will take over Klingler's role on the brand Board, with Mueller taking up the other role temporarily. Stackmann's move means the new SEAT Chairman will be Luca de Meo, who was Audi Board member for Sales and Marketing, with all this effective from October 1. Phew.

If you've made it all this way then well done. The diesel emissions saga has clearly acted as a huge wake up call to VW to drastically improve the management situation and ensure nothing like it can happen again. No doubt more updates will follow as people are in and out - plus there's the recall to think of - so we'll keep you posted as there's more.

Durheimer, Diess and Vahland pics: Autocar

Author
Discussion

V8 FOU

Original Poster:

2,970 posts

146 months

Saturday 26th September 2015
quotequote all
Musical chairs to make a (diesel powered) smokescreen methinks.

Nothing mentioned so far as to how they are going to sort the original problem?

CarsOrBikes

1,135 posts

183 months

Saturday 26th September 2015
quotequote all
Sales banned in Switzerland, who next, and will they pre register as many as possible to in an attempt to circumvent something else?

oldtimer2

728 posts

132 months

Saturday 26th September 2015
quotequote all
I thought they announced these brand groups a few weeks ago. Meantime it seems that Matthias Mueller is going to be very busry doing no less than three jobs - his old job running Porsche, his new job running VAG and another job standing in for the marketing man who has also left (apparently unrelated to the engine scam).

This week the Economist comments on another worry for VW, namely that of renewing the credit lines of its financing arm which has c70 billion euros of current financing to renew within a year. Apparently the ECB has already declined to buy VW bonds. If sales sharply decline, coupled with all the fines, claims and other exceptional costs, then VAG`s cash flow could be under extreme pressure over the coming months.

rogerhudson

338 posts

157 months

Saturday 26th September 2015
quotequote all
Calling a set of lines of computer code in an ECU's memory a 'device' shows how little most people know about modern engine management.
How about all that aftermarket 'chipping' and OBD-II 'dongles'??
Surely the 'test' related code was only activated during government rating tests not at every MoT? As for that MoT don't you (like me ) scream and abuse when someone floors the accelerator in neutral, i never take my 300 Tdi beyond 3000 rpm and i expect nobody else to.

Edited by rogerhudson on Saturday 26th September 19:25

GingerMunky

1,162 posts

256 months

Sunday 27th September 2015
quotequote all
Caught doing the macareana on the sofa!

pSynrg

238 posts

181 months

Monday 28th September 2015
quotequote all
rogerhudson said:
i never take my 300 Tdi beyond 3000 rpm and i expect nobody else to.
I take my car to it's 7200 red line as often as possible!

Wills2

22,669 posts

174 months

Monday 28th September 2015
quotequote all
rogerhudson said:
Calling a set of lines of computer code in an ECU's memory a 'device' shows how little most people know about modern engine management.


Edited by rogerhudson on Saturday 26th September 19:25
The code was there to detect the test conditions that then activated the urea "device"



dandare

957 posts

253 months

Monday 28th September 2015
quotequote all
Wills2 said:
The code was there to detect the test conditions that then activated the urea "device"
Is that the "urea extraction" device?

I don't expect much to really change at VW. They'll just be more careful about being caught, otherwise they'll lose any competitive edge that they have. Corruption is surprisingly common here in Germany (although probably not much worse than in other countries).