D In the future, the Volkswagen Group will divide responsibility for regions among its brands. “We distribute the responsibility on several shoulders,” said VW boss Herbert Diess on Friday. Decisions could thus be made more decentralized in the future, and the board of directors could concentrate on the overriding strategic issues.
The aim is also to better adapt models to the respective market requirements. Each leading brand should coordinate the implementation of the Group strategy with the other brands and provide opportunities for shared cost advantages.
With his appointment in mid-April, Diess had introduced a new corporate structure that would make Volkswagen, the major corporation, more flexible. The eight car brands are grouped into three groups: Volume ( VW including vans, Seat and Skoda), Premium (Audi and Lamborghini) and Superpremium (Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti).
In addition, there are six business areas; the China region is managed separately at Group level. It stays that way. For North and South America as well as for Sub-Saharan Africa, the largest brand VW will be responsible in the future. The Spanish brand Seat takes North Africa under the wing. Audi will be responsible for the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The Czech daughter Skoda should have the hat on for Russia and India, where Skoda has been working on a cheap car for some time.