The VW brand’s Chief Operating Officer Ralf Brandstaetter has become the new CEO replacing Herbert Diess. Diess has been working as CEO of both the Volkswagen brand and Volkswagen Group. With this change, Diess will still be CEO of Volkswagen Group and now focus more on Group’s business.
“Ralf Brandstaetter is one of the company’s most experienced managers. Over the past two years, he has already led Volkswagen successfully as COO and played a key role in shaping the transformation of the brand,” Diess said about Brandstätter’s promotion. “I am therefore very pleased that Ralf Brandstätter will be forging ahead with the development of the brand as CEO following the far-reaching strategic decisions of the past few years.”
Brandstätter has been a part of the company since 1993. He took a position as the head of metal procurement for chassis and powertrain components in 1998 and afterward assumed responsibility as the procurement chief for SEAT in 2005. He was appointed as the COO for the Volkswagen brand in August 2018.
There were rumors that Porsche CEO Oliver Blume will take the role of CEO of the VW brand but that didn’t happen.
The decision is made amid the troubles the company is facing in Europe. Volkswagen has stopped deliveries of the new Golf due to a problem in its software. More than 15,000 cars have issues in the emergency call function. We are also hearing rumors of software problems in the upcoming VW ID.3. The exact issue is still unknown but around 10,000 technicians are working on its resolution.
Source and Images: Motor1