The obligatory summer break at Volkswagen is canceled for Oliver Blume (54) this year. It has been known since Friday evening, 6 p.m., that the previous Porsche boss will replace Herbert Diess (63) at the head of the Volkswagen Group in September. Diess has achieved a lot in his almost four and a half years at the helm of the car manufacturer from the Mittelland Canal. He turned the Wolfsburg combustion engine empire in the direction of electromobility. He later set about transforming an automobile manufacturer into a software company.
Critics accuse Diess of initiating a lot but bringing little to an end. He no longer gets the opportunity to do so, after he had been on the brink of extinction several times over the years. The news of his resignation reportedly caught Diess pretty cold last week during a trip to the USA with other top Volkswagen managers. Instead of his successor Blume is now in demand as a problem solver. We show the most urgent challenges of the new Volkswagen boss.
1. Solve the software mess
As one of Volkswagen’s most important future projects, the software subsidiary Cariad is to program uniform on-board software for all future Group models. But although Diess had made the project a top priority, it didn’t work. The 63-year-old has repeatedly had to admit delays in recent weeks and months – and additional costs running into the billions. The mess was probably one problem too many. Diess had always been able to catch previous trench warfare, often with apologies to the supervisory board. But when it came to Cariad, the supervisors probably lacked the belief that he could still save the project.
Spicy: One of the sharpest lines of conflict in terms of software ran between Wolfsburg and Zuffenhausen, i.e. between Diess and Blume. Diess wanted to concentrate on the actual new super software E3 2.0. It should become the basis for lifting Volkswagen into the age of autonomous driving. Prestigious projects like the planned Teslafighter Trinity are attached to it and with it a completely new plant in Wolfsburg.
In order to have sufficient capacity for the mega project, Diess wanted to stop further development of the previous electronics architecture. But Porsche and Audi rebelled. Both brands are craving the update called E3 1.2, on which the development of new models like Audi Q6 and Porsche Macan depends. Originally planned for 2023, both models will probably be ready for the market with a delay of two years at best due to the software problems.
How does it go from here? Blume has never been considered a fan of version 2.0. If at all, he doesn’t expect her to make a breakthrough for around ten years. He will now have to decide whether to continue with the expensive duplication of software development. The supervisory board had recently approved capacities and fresh billions for this
. However, the development of Architecture 1.2 should clearly have priority under Blume.