Winterkorn Continuing At VW, But Maybe Not How He Wanted
Volkswagen will extend its contract with CEO Martin Winterkorn through 2018, Automotive News is reporting, but that two-year deal may make him too old to succeed the man he ousted, Ferdinand Piech, who left the company last year after clashing with Winterkorn.
At the end of Winterkorn’s contract, the man who led Volkswagen’s recent revolution in America will be 71, making him too old for the top slot held by interim chairman Berthold Huber. Winterkorn was seen as the likely replacement for Piech, according to Reuters, but that job may go to an outsider now.
“This increases the chances for an external chairman, which is good news in our view,” Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst with Evercore ISI’s global research head, said in a statement to Automotive News.
The distance between Winterkorn and Piech seemed to grow over their different strategies for VW in the Americas.
Volkswagen is competing with Toyota to be the world’s largest automaker. Through six months, VW had a narrow lead delivering 5.04 million cars worldwide, compared to Toyota’s 5.02 million.
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Still no Scirocco. :-(
I'm not really interested in the Japanese executive level, and I lump Ghosn in that, but I could read a weekly column on the dysfunction and insanity that is being a top-level executive in a German company (especially VAG and BMW.) This is the country that considered foreign bribes tax deductible.
I kind of like the VAG leadership over all, lots of sporty car variants. Almost all of the cars can be opened up with a tune and can be had with a manual. Compared to toyota or honda they are very driver oriented: Polo GTI, Golf GTI, Jetta GLI, Scirroco...nice turbo engines in every application, wish we could get a 3 liter diesel in a sedan over here. In Germany you can get a Passat Diesel wagon with 240 hp and presumably with a stick as well. Recently I read the new Audi CEO considered the current cars "over-damped" and too sporty-- if you want a fast Audi go buy one now.
Who is "tiffany outlet" and why is she already logged in to my account???