Herbert Diess on ZDF
The Volkswagen CEO sees more opportunities in electrotransforming than risks.
(Photo: ZDF)
DüsseldorfSo many a German CEO is having a hard time with publicity appearances in the watch TV, Too big is the risk of making an unforgivable mistake in front of running TV cameras. What your own legal department has not previously thoroughly checked thoroughly, better should not immediately go on the air.
Completely different Herbert dies, The CEO of Volkswagen proved that he does not have much fear of the medium of television. This has already considered all major German talk show formats with an appearance. He was a guest of Maybritt Illner, Anne Will, and Frank Plasberg – and on Tuesday evening he provided Markus Lanz in the ZDF one good one-hour visit from.
“It’s important that we show our faces,” Herbert Diess explains his re-appearance on television. It is important that a company like Volkswagen participate in the political discussion.
Of course, a talk show with the current VW boss is not without reference on the diesel affair out. Herbert diess can not lead this on the ice. Skillfully and routinely, he bypassed every potentially dangerous objection by moderator Lanz.
This justifies comprehensible why a hardware retrofit not worthwhile for older diesel vehicles. Other auto managers might have had protests in this situation. But not with Herbert Diess. He succeeds in winning over the sympathies of the studio audience.
Maybe that’s because of a certain honesty he puts in front of the cameras. Because the admission in matters of diesel is clear and clear: “What we did was cheating.” This should be easier than other VW managers to say such a sentence. Because only four years ago he came to Wolfsburg. When the diesel engine manipulations were devised there in the development departments, Herbert Diess was still working BMW,
The VW boss presents himself with Markus Lanz above all as a man of the future with a completely new strategy. Volkswagen leaves behind the mistakes and manipulations of the past – now the Group is focusing on its transformation into the world’s leading manufacturer of electric cars.
“For many of our customers, the electric car will be exactly the right choice,” says the Volkswagen CEO. Also in terms of energy balance, there is nothing better than a battery-powered vehicle. Even in comparison with fuel cell and hydrogen, the battery car cuts off more positively. The range of its new generation of e-vehicles Volkswagen has improved so much that there should be no more complaints from the customers about it.
No fear of contact with the Greens
Herbert diess does not come as the boss of a company, which was publicly abused not so long ago because of its diesel manipulation. The VW boss is almost becoming a green party representative when he talks about his company taking climate change very seriously. “This is perhaps the biggest threat to humanity,” he adds.
With the electric car, the VW Group is doing its part to stop global warming and excessive carbon dioxide emissions.
In general, the Greens. To Germany’s most successful political party Herbert Diess knows no reservations. “We actually have good relations with the Greens,” he said at Lanz. VW and Greens pursued the common goal of establishing the electric car permanently.
He personally has a good relationship with individual green politicians: Winfried Kretschmann, Green Prime Minister in Baden-Württemberg, does a decent job. Even a Green Transport Minister would accept Diess: “I’m not afraid of the Greens.”
Herbert Diess is in front of the TV cameras as a fundamentally positive person. The conversion of the Volkswagen Group to an electrical manufacturer is associated with risks such as a larger workplace. But such drastic changes always offer new opportunities with the prospect of a better result in the end. “I’m sleeping well,” he says.
The VW Group could handle the change. And the cars would be cleaner and safer than they are today. Volkswagen should also become the world market leader in electromobility. Japanese competitors are only now turning to battery cars, in the US, there is not much in this field except Tesla, “So we are not too late,” Diess emphasizes, “the German automotive industry did not sleep there.”
The visit to Markus Lanz has come to a good end for Diess. He promises to come back in nine months, then to draw an interim balance in matters of electric mobility.
After the broadcast, there is also satisfaction on the company corridors in Wolfsburg. “He has done well,” says a VW manager on the television appearance of its own CEO. So nothing should stand in the way of another performance.
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