Volkswagen is changing again at a crucial point. As the group announced on Monday, Christian Dahlheim (57), the CEO of Volkswagen Financial Services AG (VWFS), is leaving the company at the end of the year. His successor will be the previous sales and marketing director Anthony Bandmann (53).
According to several Volkswagen spokespersons, Dahlheim decided to change of his own free will. He wants to take on a new challenge again. His next task has already been decided: Dahlheim will take over as CEO of the Dutch Pon Holdings.
For the manager, this marks the end of a 20-year career in various management positions at Volkswagen. Dahlheim, whom some companions describe as “perhaps the most intelligent in the entire group,” had recently come under internal pressure. He has headed the finance division for four years and has delivered some of the most stable profits in the entire group. In the current year, Volkswagen actually earned more money from its financial services at almost 3.1 billion euros than in its core car business (a good 2.2 billion euros).
In the end, Dahlheim also had to cope with some failures. The takeover of the car rental company Europcar, which was completed in 2022 and which Dahlheim played a key role in driving forward at Volkswagen, has been difficult so far. Instead of being the driving force for a change into a mobility provider, as hoped, Europcar has so far proven to be a positive for the group as an expensive renovation case
. Volkswagen has to inject more and more money, and operations at Europcar are also not going smoothly. Internally, patience is dwindling Some powerful people would probably like to sell the landlord again
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Unlike Weckbach, as mentioned above, Christian Dahlheim already knows what will happen to him after leaving Volkswagen. The Dutch Pon Holdings is not only an importer of Volkswagen in its home country. The company, which has more than 10,000 employees worldwide, was also involved in the Europcar takeover as a junior partner and is still on board as an investor in the car rental company today. So completely can – or wants to? – Christian Dahlheim so don’t leave that drama behind.