VW boss Herbert Diess exits three years early after turbulent tenure
Volkswagen’s CEO, Herbert Diess, is stepping down and will be succeeded by the current head of Porsche, Oliver Blume, Europe’s top carmaker has said, after a four-year tenure in which Diess pushed VW’s electric vehicle ambitions and clashed with its work council and board.
Sources with knowledge of the matter said the Porsche and Piëch families, who own over half the voting rights and a 31.4% equity stake in Volkswagen, pressed for a change at the helm.
“Diess was incorrigible. He significantly changed Volkswagen for the better. But his communication was miserable,” one source said, asking not to be named.
Diess will leave his role on 1 September, three years before the end of his contract in 2025.
Blume, at VW Group since 1994 and chair of Porsche’s board since 2015, will retain his position at Porsche alongside his new responsibilities “including in the event of a possible [stock market flotation]”, a statement said.
Diess’s future at Volkswagen has been in doubt after communication missteps which angered the workers’ council, most recently in autumn last year after he stated a mismanaged transition to electrification could cost the carmaker more than 30,000 jobs. He was also lambasted for his frequent public warnings that Volkswagen was falling behind Tesla.
The instability weighed on Volkswagen’s market value, which has been on a downward spiral since early 2021.
Daniela Cavallo, chair of the workers’ council, had warned that support for the extension of Diess’s contract would depend on whether he could keep Volkswagen at the forefront of Europe’s car industry.
In what could be taken as a warning to Diess’s successor, Cavallo said in a statement on Friday that “job security and profitability” are “equally important”.
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