The power struggle in the Volkswagen Group has caused quite a stir in the past few days.
But now it looks like the works council, the state of Lower Saxony, which has a stake in VW, and the Porsche and Piëch shareholder families are getting together again.
CEO Herbert Diess, it was said in unison on Tuesday by those involved, will probably be able to remain at the top of the group after his future was uncertain for weeks due to a conflict with the employee side.
Other topics, including other executive board personnel and questions about the occupancy of German plants, are well prepared for the supervisory board to be able to vote on an overall package on Thursday during its planning round for investments in the next few years.
This should also include a regulation of who will be responsible for business in China in the future.
Christian Müßgens
Business correspondent in Hamburg.
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The country is extremely important for VW, but the company has been struggling there for several months.
The chip crisis and other impacts ensured that sales of all group brands active in China fell by more than 8 percent to 2.8 million vehicles by the end of October.
The fact that sales of new electric models started weaker than initially hoped and that the original sales targets of the VW core brand have not been met in the current year caused a particularly sensation.
These difficulties are personally blamed on the works council CEO Diess, who is responsible for managing business in China on the board of directors.
Now VW wants to reorganize responsibility, with the previous head of the core brand, Ralf Brandstätter, playing a decisive role.
It has been speculated for weeks that the 53-year-old manager will be promoted to the Group's executive board in the course of the planning round. In fact, this should be decided according to information from the FAZ. But that should only be the first step. In the summer, so it is said in informed circles, Brandstätter is to take over the management of the China business from CEO Diess. He will then hand over the management of the VW brand to a successor. If that happens, the VW Group's China business will again be handled in the new constellation with a separate board department. The last time there was such a position was from 2012 to 2019. When the manager responsible at the time, Jochem Heizmann, retired, Diess personally took on responsibility in addition to his previous duties as CEO.
Brandstätter follows Wöllenstein in business in China
The previous governor of VW in China, Stephan Wöllenstein, who is not a member of the group's executive board, is to return, according to information from the FAZ.
He may take on new tasks in the group.
According to the plans, a successor should not be named, since Wöllenstein's previous task will be reflected in the layout of Brandstätter's department.
Like Wöllenstein, he is supposed to carry out his task directly from China, which is considered necessary in order to tackle the difficulties in the country with a high-ranking occupation directly on site.
A spokesman for the supervisory board did not want to comment on the plans on Tuesday.
For the VW brand boss, the new task is a vote of confidence. The works council, which has more influence in the VW Group than in any other company, has been promoting it for a long time. The capital side of the supervisory board, which includes the families of Lower Saxony and the Qatars state fund, which is part of VW, apparently trusts him to carry out bigger tasks. This, however, continues to lose influence in the company. Last year he had already given Brandstätter an area of responsibility, namely the management of the VW brand. At that time, too, a violent dispute had preceded after Diess had accused the board of directors of "criminal offenses" in connection with reports from internal deliberations. This time it came to a conflict because he had scenarios involving a reduction of up to 30.000 jobs had snubbed the works council and Lower Saxony. As in the previous year, he can probably stay at the top, but has to accept a cut in his duties.
The supervisory board should also decide on other executive board personnel matters on Thursday. As reported, the previous chief legal advisor, Manfred Döss, is to succeed Hiltrud Werner, who has previously been in charge of integrity and law. Hauke Stars, most recently on the board of Deutsche Börse, is likely to be appointed as the new head of IT. An agreement has also recently emerged for the allocation of important German works. The commercial vehicle plant in Hanover, which was threatened with underutilization due to changed plans to build a sporty SUV from the Porsche Group brand, can apparently be employed with other models. The main plant in Wolfsburg, which is currently underutilized, is expected to receive final assembly of the ID.3 compact car, even before the start of the future Trinity project.which should secure part of the work at the site from 2026 onwards. That was a central demand of the works council. If there are no difficulties in the last few meters, the main issues will be resolved before the planning round on Thursday.