Writing an article? /? Ma xiaolei
Editor? /? Huang Da road
Design? /? Zhao Haoran
Source? /? Bloomberg, by Oliver? Sacgao
In the past few months, Volkswagen Group has been as busy as a bee. Externally, it is necessary to deal with the biggest industry crisis in decades, support the huge expenditure in the electrification field, and internally, it is necessary to deal with the tense internal relations to prevent the backyard from catching fire. Last month, group CEO Edith (Herbert? Diess) had to hand over the management right of Volkswagen brand after the conflict with the members of the board of supervisors. Ralf, the former chief operating officer of the brand? Brandstaetter) took over. Subsequently, the public's top management kept changing blood, and the management made several adjustments in just a few weeks.
The head of the popular software department is out.
German Business Daily reported on Sunday that Volkswagen fired Christian Saenger, the head of the software department. Senger), in the critical period of electrification transformation, as Volkswagen's first pure electric vehicle, ID.3 is expected to fight against Tesla.
However, due to software problems, ID.3 almost died before he conquered it, so it had to be delivered first, and some key functions were activated by patches at the beginning of 202 1. At the beginning of this year, Tesla surpassed the industrial giants at the speed of light in market value. Now, although the car sales are less than one twentieth of that of Volkswagen, its market value is three times that of Volkswagen.
The eCall emergency call function of the brand-new Golf 8, which has the same strategic significance as the ID.3 electric car, also has problems. Golf has always been the best-selling model in Europe, and two key new cars have been thrown into the street because of software problems. As the head of the software department, Sanger bears the brunt of this, and at the same time, he has removed the position of director and board member of the mass software department.
Saengel worked in BMW for 15 years. After he participated in the research and development of BMW i3 and i8, CEO Diss hired Volkswagen with the plan of introducing external managers, and participated in the research and development of Volkswagen MEB pure electric platform. As a magic weapon for public recovery after the valve incident at the end of 20 15, Diss has been working hard to protect Senge.
Software research and development is the most important link in the development of a new generation of electric vehicles. Compared with Volkswagen's main vehicles, the new generation of electric vehicles rely more on computer software. Sanger's departure is the second large-scale adjustment of Volkswagen in a few weeks. Last week, Volkswagen adjusted the high-level structure of the truck and commercial vehicle departments, forcing the heads of Traton and MAN truck businesses to leave.
Management confusion spread to truck subsidiaries.
A series of high-level personnel changes of Volkswagen Group have affected its heavy truck department Traton, and the head of this department, Andreas Renschler (Andreas? Renschler) will leave Volkswagen from July 15, and he will be replaced by the former CFO of the department? Matthias Gruendler). Joachim (Joachim? Drees) will also step down.
Personnel Director Interla (Carsten? Intra) will replace Thomas Sedlan (Thomas? Sedran) was transferred to the head of Volkswagen's light commercial vehicle department. Sedlan is a key figure in the alliance between Volkswagen and Ford, and he will be responsible for the asset management of commercial vehicles and machinery business. In addition, Stefan Summer, head of group procurement (Stefan? Sommer) also suddenly resigned.
The unexpected departure of the head of the truck department has raised questions about its future strategy. After several months' delay, Volkswagen promoted the initial public offering of Traton last year, but the revenue did not meet expectations. At the beginning of this year, Traton extended an olive branch to its American counterpart Navistar, intending to acquire it, but it was too late to see the following. Volkswagen executives said that the transaction is still in progress, but there are still differences on when and under what conditions.
Skoda brand CEO steps down in June.
Bernhard, 60? Maier) stepped down as CEO of Skoda brand in July and worked in Volkswagen for nearly 5 years. Mebona's successor will be elected by the board of directors in August. Skoda declined to say whether Mebona would be transferred to other positions within the Volkswagen Group.
Thomas Chikov, head of South African operations of Volkswagen Group (Thomas? Schaefer) is a popular candidate to succeed Minami Nami. Thomas Chikov, 50 years old, worked for Daimler for the first time and joined the public in 20 12. Another candidate is Martin Jahn, the sales and marketing director of FAW-Volkswagen's joint venture in China. Jahn), joined Volkswagen in 2006 and previously served as the Minister of Economy of the Czech government.
Mebona led Skoda to break the record of profit and car sales in 20 18, and he also helped Skoda launch new models on a large scale, including a variety of SUVs. In recent years, Skoda's annual delivery has increased to more than 6.5438+0 million vehicles, but like other automobile manufacturers, it has also been hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic. In the first quarter of this year, its car sales decreased by 14% to 237,000 vehicles, and its operating profit decreased by 103 million euros to 307 million euros.
Executives imprisoned in tailgate will be extradited to Germany.
Former Volkswagen engineer Oliver Schmidt (Oliver? Schmidt), who concealed key information in the Volkswagen exhaust valve incident, was sentenced to seven years in prison in the United States and will now be extradited to Germany to serve the rest of his sentence. Oliver Schmidt, aged 5 1 20 17, was arrested at Miami-Dade airport when he returned to the United States after Christmas in Germany, and requested extradition to Germany two years ago.
Oliver Schmidt is currently serving his sentence in a federal prison in Milan, a small town in western Detroit, USA. According to the relevant extradition treaty, Germany will be responsible for Oliver's remaining sentence. A notice from the Detroit District Court shows that a federal judge will pass this request within this week.
Oliver used to be the general manager of the environment and engineering office of Volkswagen USA, and was the main responsible person for the tailgate incident that Volkswagen tried to cover up. 20 17 was sentenced to imprisonment and fined 400,000 yuan. Before the tailgate incident, Oliver was a rising star among Volkswagen executives. He was the speaker of the 20 13 automobile management briefing seminar in Traverse City, Michigan.
The Volkswagen trade union said that there is no need to cut costs further.
Many personnel appointments and dismissals of the Volkswagen Group are inseparable from the powerful trade union forces, which are made by Ostro (Bernd? The mass trade union led by Osterloh is the driving force for many executives who advocate cost reduction to leave. Wolfgang bernhard, former head of Volkswagen brand (Wolfgang? Bernhard) and Dr. Bi Ruide, former head of Volkswagen Group (Bernd? Pischetsrieder) resigned after a conflict with trade union leaders.
Ostro recently conducted a roadshow and told analysts and investors that there is no need for automakers to cut costs further in Germany. Ostro said that it will be launched in the next 20 16? The Pact plan is still keeping costs down, which is enough to help the company overcome the epidemic crisis. Volkswagen is already in a leading position among its European peers, and there is no need for incremental cost reduction at present.
A spokesman for the public later said that Ostro's remarks refer to deeper structural cost items such as mass layoffs, rather than ways to save costs through continuous efficiency improvement. Ostro told analysts that if demand drops further, Volkswagen can reduce costs by reducing employees' working hours.
Ostro also said that the trade union fully supports CEO Diss, and the Volkswagen ID.3 electric car is a powerful product, which is completely on the right track. Regarding the plan to fully acquire Navistar, a truck manufacturer, Ostro said that strategically, this is still the right move, but increasing Volkswagen's share in this business is not a priority at present.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.