{"id":95491,"date":"2015-06-16T14:19:03","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T18:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=95491"},"modified":"2015-06-16T14:19:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T18:19:03","slug":"major-reorganization-planned-for-volkswagen-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2015\/06\/major-reorganization-planned-for-volkswagen-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Reorganization Planned for Volkswagen Group"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rupert Stadler, shown with an etron concept, reportedly will head the new group pairing Audi, Lamborghini and Ducati.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Already wracked by turmoil in its executive suite, the Volkswagen Group is about to shake up its corporate structure. A new, decentralized approach reportedly will split VW\u2019s 12 different brands into four holding companies.<\/p>\n

The approach appears to be modeled after the approach VW has taken with luxury brand Audi, which has long operated as a semi-autonomous group. The Lamborghini and Ducati brands were directly owned by Audi, and the trio will continue to be run by Audi CEO Rupert Stadler.<\/p>\n

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Key in on the News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The approach appears to be a significant shift in direction from the centrally controlled management structure put in place by Ferdinand Piech, the Volkswagen chairman who was ousted earlier this year in a split with the VW management board. The new structure is aimed at streamlining operations and speeding up Volkswagen\u2019s ability to respond to the marketplace.<\/p>\n

During his years as CEO and then chairman, Piech took an extremely heavy-handed micro-management approach. That led to a falling out when he tried to scuttle the career of his one-time prot\u00e9g\u00e9, current VW CEO Martin Winterkorn, who was expected to become the maker\u2019s next chairman.<\/p>\n

The flagship Volkswagen division will be grouped together with the mainstream Seat and Skoda brands, that holding company headed by former BMW executive Herbert Diess.<\/p>\n

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CEO Matthias Muller with the Porsche Macan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Porsche and Bentley, which have already been working together on several up-market projects, such as the upcoming Bentley Bentayga SUV, will be paired in another group. They will be joined by the ultra-exclusive Bugatti, and run by current Porsche boss Matthias Mueller.<\/p>\n

The remaining brands will be part of a holding company focused on trucks and commercial vehicles. They include Scania, MAN, and Volkswagen Commercial. Andreas Renschler, a long-time Daimler AG executive, will head this unit.<\/p>\n

(VW enjoying strong sales results in 2015. For more, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The final details of the plan, apparently, have yet to be worked out. Among other things, reports from Europe suggest that VW management is still debating whether to set up separate group-level managers for sales and production, as well as to oversee the booming Chinese market where VW is the leading automotive manufacturer.<\/p>\n

The German business daily Handelsblatt was first to report the planned restructuring. TheDetroitBureau.com has not yet received a response from Volkswagen headquarters.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for details about TDB’s first look at the 2016 Volkswagen GLI.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a growing push for Volkswagen to change its strategy even before the internal fight that led to Piech\u2019s departure. While the maker\u2019s first-quarter earnings rose 19%, to $3.23 billion, its margins have been short of what analysts and investors have been calling for. Despite cost-cutting described by the German maker as \u201cin the low triple-digits millions,\u201d VW has been seen as having much too bloated a cost structure. It has also been faulted for being slow to respond to changing market trends.<\/p>\n

The company was late to market with hybrids, for example, though it is now making a major push into plug-based technologies, such as the plug-in hybrid version of the Golf hatchback, and a performance-based PHEV alternative that will be offered for the upcoming Bentley Bentayga.<\/p>\n

(To see more about VW’s plans to expand its U.S. plant and add nearly 10,000 jobs, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The planned restructuring is generating positive feedback. “VW has in the past often responded slowly to market parameters which are changing quickly,\u201d said Marc-Rene Tonn, an automotive analyst with M.M. Warburg. \u201cRealigning brands in that way makes good sense. It would clarify responsibilities and speed up decision-making.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Already wracked by turmoil in its executive suite, the Volkswagen Group is about to shake up its corporate structure. A new, decentralized approach reportedly will split VW\u2019s 12 different brands into four holding companies. Get the details at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95491"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=95491"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=95491"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=95491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}