It was four years long Herbert Diess (65) the boss in Volkswagen-Group. He resigned in August 2022. In the company’s current misery, the current Infineon supervisory board chairman has now spoken out – and praised the austerity measures of his successor Oliver Blume (56). “Olli Blume does it very well,” Diess said in “Wirtschaftswoche”
. Europe’s largest car manufacturer must now do its homework, improve productivity and increase efficiency. “Blume does that great, with a steady hand.”
Diess: Combustion engine business remains attractive
The manager also commented on the future of gasoline and diesel engines. “As things stand, you can still sell combustion engines quite well for another ten years.” In addition, in 2024 “hardly any manufacturer would have much interest in selling too many electric cars”. This is mainly due to the fact that the EU’s CO₂ limits will certainly be reached this year and electric vehicles tend to have lower margins than combustion engines.
The former VW boss also looks forward to the period after 2025, when the requirements will be tightened again. “Once the hurdle is overcome, there will be no further tension until 2030. The values for 2030 will perhaps be discussed again and the end of the combustion engine in 2035 will most likely also be discussed.” Nevertheless, Diess believes “that the fate of the German car industry will be decided by the electric car because it is the best and cheapest technology that is becoming established worldwide.”
In the interview, Diess was also self-critical. Blume has a better chance of accomplishing the tasks. Unlike Diess, who was once from BMW When he came to VW, Blume, as a native of Braunschweig, had roots in the region. “And he’s also much more sociable than me.” During his time in office, Diess regularly fought for power struggles with the powerful works council at VW.
Three years ago, when he was still CEO, Diess himself spoke of 30,000 jobs that could be lost at the core brand – and received criticism from all sides. “That was probably too early,” he said now looking back. “I did what I could do.”
The removal of Diess as CEO on September 1, 2022 was met with some surprise. He brought up the group’s direction Electromobility At that time, Blume was primarily seen as a supporter of e-fuels. Last year, Blume announced that it would massively reduce the costs of the VW core brand in order to survive the price war with Tesla and other competitors.