Christian Senger
A new task is being sought for the manager.
(Photo: Volkswagen AG)
Frankfurt, Munich In the ranks of Volkswagen Christian Senger is one of the most capable minds. The graduate engineer led the development of the ID electrical series for the car manufacturer Volkswagen wants to create entry into electromobility. The pace at which Senger delivered impressed the CEO Herbert Diess.
He immediately assigned him the next big task. Senger has been working on the Car.Software.Org since March 2019. The bulky term is hidden the most ambitious project in the VW group: The software company is to be expanded to around 10,000 employees in order to separate operating system for all car models to develop throughout the VW group.
Senger has been a member of the board of directors of the core Volkswagen brand and, since the start on July 1, has also been the official head of Car.Software.Org – just under two weeks ago. He will now have to vacate these positions again, as the Handelsblatt has learned from corporate circles.
When building the Car.Software.Org, the shooting star has overwhelmed with too many actors in the VW empire, several corporate managers report. In addition, in the future Audi-Boss Markus Duesmann responsible for the development of the VW Group’s digital units. The company did not comment on the impending replacement.
Neither the Senger staffing nor the timing are a coincidence. Since the beginning of July, the second management level in the VW Group has undergone major changes. With Andreas Renschler and Thomas Sedran, the heads of the trucks and vans divisions have to go.
In the middle of last week, the company also announced the departure of SkodaChief Bernhard Maier. The core brand VW as well as Seat and Audi have each received new management in the past few weeks.
The personnel is also a demonstration of power
The conversion has been prepared by VW boss Diess in recent months, as it was said in corporate circles. He closely coordinated with Bernd Osterloh, the chairman of the works council, and representatives of the Porsche / Piëch family. The supervisory board wants a breath of fresh air in the management team.
In the meantime, Diess was on the brink. The VW boss had accused the supervisory board of violations of the law at a conference with over 3000 executives, but could not prove it. After initial consultations, the Supervisory Board again refrained from dismissing him without notice and only issued a complaint to Diess.
The management restructuring now underway is an opportunity for Diess to demonstrate its freshly established power internally, as a supervisory board said. He does not stop at former companions like Senger. This belongs to the circle of leaders, the dies of BMW followed to Volkswagen. There Senger was responsible for the development of the so-called i-series, the counterpart to the VW electric car ID.
At Volkswagen, Senger came across a different culture. While at BMW Decisions made by the board and then implemented, many factions have a say at VW. The new software unit showed how difficult it is to deal with.
Senger had brought the specialists from all areas of the VW world together in order to bundle the development work under one roof of the Car.Software.Org. This was new territory for Volkswagen. As a rule, the work is divided among the group brands. With the Car.Software.Org, however, an independent subsidiary should do the work for everyone.
Senger is not coping with the VW policy
This met with little mutual love among executives of the individual brands, who feared for influence and power. The works councils were also not very enthusiastic. The start was delayed for a long time because the individual collective agreements of the brands for the Car.Software.Org had to be coordinated. “Senger has always requested new resources without explaining what he actually intends to do,” explains an insider. “It would have been better to do it the other way round: first explain the project, then request it.” The resistance was too great, Senger made too many enemies. Senger will no longer take over the leadership of Car.Software.Org, which is based on the Audi innovation campus in Ingolstadt.
Car.Software.Org is at the top of the Diess agenda. For the VW boss, this unit is a central key for the development of the Volkswagen group. So far, software development has hardly played a role; just ten percent of the codes used come from our own company. Mostly VW uses software from auto suppliers such as Continental, Bosch or the Korean LG group. So far, software has been considered a necessary evil. At VW, one is usually satisfied with coordinating the various programming of the suppliers in one vehicle and getting them to work. The result is a patchwork in the car and in the group – after all, each of the twelve individual brands relied on their own, mostly modest, software skills.
That should change fundamentally now, because the industry is changing. The car will become a smartphone on four wheels, CEO Diess preaches. Tesla In addition to the battery, the software is a central component of its range. The car is constantly connected to the Internet, sends and receives data permanently.
Keeps up with new updates Tesla fit his cars, feed the navigation computer or increase the battery capacity. “Tesla builds the car around a computer,” says a leading VW manager. “We’re trying to get the computer in the car now.”
One way to catch up would be to fall back on Google. The US Internet giant is investing heavily in car software and has recently collaborated extensively with Volvo closed. This is not an option for Volkswagen, the world’s largest car group by volume. The German auto industry fears dependency on large American IT groups.
The goal remains a uniform operating system
With the Car.Software.Org, Volkswagen wants to create the conditions for the Group’s own software share to increase to more than 60 percent by 2025. VW would thereby bundle essential parts of the software competence in-house. “Volkswagen wants to retain sovereignty over the entire vehicle architecture, which includes the electronics,” Senger said recently. What will become of the top manager is open.
They want to keep him in the group in any case, it said in VW circles. He is currently looking for a new job. Finding them will not be easy. Senger is considered very ambitious – with a clear focus on new technologies. However, Audi boss Duesmann is now responsible for them.
The former BMW manager, who has been leading Audi since April, is responsible for technology development on the VW Group Executive Board. He wants to make development faster and more focused. The creation of a uniform operating system will remain a top priority even after Senger’s replacement.
More: Tesla plans to employ fewer people in its German plant.