VolkswagenBoss Oliver Blume (54) replaces the long-standing chief designer of the car manufacturer and rearranges central positions in the group. Chief designer Klaus Zyciora (61) should be replaced at the beginning of the year by Michael Mauer (60), the chief designer of Porsche stay, said the Wolfsburg on Wednesday. The key position, from which the design language of all brands belonging to the group is determined, reports directly to Blume.
With the replacement of the group department for quality management, the upper class daughter also gets Audi more weight. Michael Neumayer is to take over this post from January, in addition to his job in corporate quality at Audi. Neumayer replaces Frank Welsch, who is retiring after almost 30 years with the Group.
New distribution of roles in the group
With the At the same time, Blume ensures a different distribution of roles in the car company
: In the future, the main brand VW passenger cars will be responsible for production and purchasing, its Ingolstadt-based sister company Audi will be responsible for sales and quality, and Porsche will be responsible for design and development. The aim is to connect the brands more closely, which in the past often did not pull together. In the future, the group intends to focus on coordination and leveraging synergies. Blume had reduced the board by three to nine posts when he took office in early September. He announced that tasks would be shifted to the individual brands.
The brand boss Thomas Schäfer (52), who has been in office since the beginning of July, had only recently criticized the appearance of VW. With the new ID family, it is no longer clear what Volkswagen stands for when it comes to e-cars and combustion engines in terms of brand-defining elements. He wants to change that.
Blume explained that first-class quality and iconic design have always been the performance characteristics of the group and its brands. “With the Group-wide management of the brands, we are increasing our focus on our customers.” The 54-year-old also manages the Wolfsburg car group and the sports car subsidiary Porsche AG.
Blume revises Diess’ decision and brings Mauer back
Chief designer Mauer was already in charge of the design department from 2015 to 2020, at that time with Matthias Müller as CEO. His successor Herbert Diess (64) used Zyciora. Flower is now undoing that.
Zyciora has held various positions in design at Volkswagen since 1989 and has been responsible for the group with its twelve brands since 2020. Among other things, he was responsible for the Golf generations six to eight and the design of the ID models. Now he is leaving the company.
Mauer has been in charge of design at Porsche AG since 2004 and was responsible, among other things, for the design of the 911 sports car, the two-seater 918 Spyder and the Macan and Taycan models.