Auf Wiedersehen! Ferdinand Piëch retires at Volkswagen

Posted on 25-04-2015 at 19:19 by MauritsH – 105 Comments”

Could not long be well, that internal power struggle in the highest echelons of the VAG.

After the public criticism of Piëch on CEO Martin Winterkorn is the bomb cracked. Piëch away today at the field after the relations between him and the rest of the management came under pressure to stand, and so the 78-year-old grandson of Ferdinand Porsche after more than 20 years, a new hobby find.

Also, other functions within Volkswagen, explains Piëch down, as well as his wife Ursula. Which he lays not down, but also stops its activities within a VW.

That Piëch the battle of Winterkorn was losing, there was somewhat to it. Winterkorn could on the support of almost all the influential parties in VAG charge, which Piëch actually as the only non behind the CEO was. Salient detail: even the family Porsche (51% of the voting rights in VW) sided with Winterkorn and turned so against Piëch.

Bet of the proceedings would be disappointing results in the Americas and, in general, disappointing profits. That last, incidentally, is remarkable, because VW did it in the past year in the financial sense, particularly well. Berthold Huber takes over temporarily the duties of Piëch where, until a new chairman is chosen.

Update – the response of Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, the chairman of the Porsche supervisory board:

“We have full confidence in the board of management of Volkswagen Group and we deeply regret the developments of the last few days. We thank Ferdinand Piëch for his decades of extraordinary and highly successful service to the Volkswagen Group. Our great loyalty to the Volkswagen Group and its 600,000 employees remains unchanged and we assume our responsibility as a principal shareholder.“