Completely surprisingly, Volkswagen announces the departure of CEO Diess. He will leave the carmaker at the end of August. His successor has already been determined: Porsche boss Blume will also lead the entire group, but will receive support.
Volkswagen surprisingly exchanges its CEO. Herbert Diess will go on September 1st, the Wolfsburg carmaker announced. His successor will be the boss of the sports car subsidiary Porsche AG, Oliver Blume.
Blume is to continue in his current position in parallel. He is currently working on an IPO for Porsche AG, which should go ahead in the fall. At VW, 54-year-old Blume will be supported operationally by Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz, who will also be responsible for day-to-day business in the future.
The departure announced after the Xetra close of trading hit the shares of the car company after the trading day. The shares lost 2.6 percent in late trading in Frankfurt after closing at EUR 134.32.
The former BMW manager Diess has been in charge of VW since April 2018. The supervisory board has agreed with the 63-year-old to leave, Volkswagen said. The decision was made "consensually," it said. Chairman of the Supervisory Board Hans Dieter Pötsch thanked Diess. "During his time as CEO of the Volkswagen brand and of the Group, he played a key role in driving forward the transformation of the company." Diess pushed the conversion of VW in e-mobility significantly.
However, there have recently been a number of problems, especially with the sluggish and increasingly expensive development of in-house software and IT systems. Blume had long been considered a possible successor to Diess. His name had been mentioned several times behind the scenes when a conflict between the VW boss and the powerful works council over possible new austerity programs escalated last year.
For example, there was criticism of Diess' communication and a power struggle with the works council over possible cuts in the workforce. Statements by Diess about the possible reduction of up to 30,000 jobs caused anger. In the end, a compromise solution was found in which Diess had to relinquish responsibilities.
Even before that, there had been violent differences of opinion with parts of the supervisory board about the further strategy and about a possible drastic job cut at Europe's largest car manufacturer.
