Autoblog

For the past 15 years Ferdinand Piech has been the guiding force behind Volkswagen, first as CEO and Chairman, and since his mandatory retirement in 2002, as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Before that he headed Audi and helped to cultivate the four-ringed brand's engineering reputation. However, the Piech era may be drawing to a close as the Porsche takeover of VW looks set to break out into intra-family warfare. While Porsche is public company, much of the voting control is held by members of the Porsche and Piech families, the children and grandchildren of founder Ferry Porsche. While little has been said publicly about what is going on in the boardroom at Porsche and the companies reasons for taking control of VW, Piech has been in the peculiar position, being on both sides of the takeover battle. Earlier this year there were reports that Piech was trying to oust Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking in order to maintain control of VW. It now appears that Piech's own family may have had enough of his control, and cousin Wolfgang Porsche is reportedly preparing to push him out. Piech apparently stayed away from a board meeting on Friday to avoid voting with or against his family on the issue of Porsche cooperating with Audi. The family is apparently incensed at Piech's behavior and want him dismissed.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Following-up on last week's announcement that Volkswagen was looking at Alabama for a new manufacturing facility, the German automaker's management board is expected to make their final recommendation today. Following that announcement, Volkswagen's supervisory board, headed by former VW group CEO Ferdinand Piech, will make its decision by tomorrow. Whether Huntsville, Alabama, or second-choice Chattanooga, Tennessee, gets the nod, the move is key for Volkswagen as they attempt to increase sales in the United States with more targeted, and lower priced, vehicles. In addition to the Volkswagen Jetta (itself being redesigned to better compete with the Honda Civic) the new facility will produce an all-new Passat-sized sedan with a base price of about $20,000. Larger, in order to compete with the Toyota Camry, the new sedan would undercut the current Volkswagen Passat's pricing by about $5,000--a significant margin. The plant would open in late 2010 with an annual production capacity of nearly 250,000 vehicles.

[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]

Looks like Wolfgang Bernhard may have taken the appointment of Martin Winterkorn as future Volkswagen AG CEO personally. Reports are swirling that Bernhard is likely to step down soon. Newspapers are reporting today that VW has asked for a commitment from Bernhard by Friday. German business newspaper Handelsblatt said Bernhard had threatened as early as May to resign if Winterkorn became CEO.

This would be a pretty big loss for Volkswagen, as Bernhard is widely regarded as a savior for VW because of his efforts to cut costs in Germany. Some put Bernhard's contribution to Volkswagen's bottom line as high as $9 billion (7 billion euros) by 2008. That has come mainly as a result of restructured benefits and extended working hours for VW's 100,000 workers at its plants in western Germany.

This comes on the heels of last week's shakeup that saw the group's chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder stepping down after a power struggle with VW chairman Ferdinand Piech. That resulted in the nomination of Audi CEO Martin Winterkorn as the new head of VW. Bernd has since been reassigned to the trucking arm of VAG.

[Sources: Reuters and Automotive News, sub req]