Berlin (AFP)
The former boss and historical figure of Volkswagen carmaker, Ferdinand Piëch, died at the age of 82, his wife said in a message sent to AFP by his lawyer.
"My husband (...) died suddenly and unexpectedly on August 25, 2019," writes Ursula Piëch in a brief statement, confirming press reports and referring to "a life marked by passion for cars and employees who build them ".
According to several media, including Bild, the former chairman of the executive board and chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen died in a hospital in Rosenheim, Bavaria, where he was transported after collapsing in a restaurant in front of his eyes. wife.
Born in Vienna on April 17, 1937, Ferdinand Piëch is considered the patriarch of VW, which he transformed into a group comprising numerous car brands from 1993 before giving up the management in 2002.
Called "legend of the automobile" by the daily newspaper Bild, he was one of the most important figures in German industry and the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the luxury car manufacturer and creator, at the request of the Nazi regime, the famous Ladybug.
Became the boss of the supervisory board, he had left his post in 2015 after a showdown with the boss of the time, Martin Winterkorn, involved in the scandal of diesel engines rigged which greatly undermined the image of the company and the German automotive sector.
It was he who had brought the VW, Audi, Seat, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche brands together in the Volkswagen behemoth to become a world-class group.
Accustomed to splintering and unpacking family disputes in public, Ferdinand Piëch finally sold most of his shares in Porsche SE - Volkswagen's main shareholder - in 2017 for nearly a billion euros. , marking the end of his reign on the German automobile.
He had finally fallen out of favor with his family and the leaders of the Volkswagen Group after a media report in which he blamed former Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn for the "dieselgate".
© 2019 AFP