VW Names Porsche’s Müller CEO, Reorganizes Group

Volkswagen makes it official, naming Porsche Chairman Matthias Müller its new CEO, replacing Martin Winterkorn, who resigned this week under pressure from the diesel-engine emissions scandal.

The move had been rumored ever since Winterkorn stepped down Wednesday. Müller will remain chairman of Porsche until a successor can be found.

“Matthias Müller is a person of great strategic, entrepreneurial and social competence,” VW board Chairman Berthold Huber says in a statement. “He knows the Group and its brands well and can immediately engage in his new task with full energy. We expressly value his critical and constructive approach.”

Müller says he will ensure Volkswagen does “everything it can to develop and implement the most stringent compliance and governance standards in our industry.

“My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group – by leaving no stone unturned and with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation,” he says in a statement. “If we manage to achieve that, then the Volkswagen Group with its innovative strength, its strong brands and above all its competent and highly motivated team has the opportunity to emerge from this crisis stronger than before.”

Müller will be charged with leading a reorganization of the automaker, set forth in new resolutions adopted by the board today.

A new group will combine Porsche, Bentley and Bugatti, which will be responsible for developing sports cars and the mid-engine architecture for VW overall.

Brands will be more directly responsible for their regional performances. A new 4-region structure will be set up within the VW brand, each led by a local CEO with direct reporting to Chairman Herbert Diess. That includes North America, where all activities for the U.S., Canada and Mexico now will be under one executive, newly named Winfried Vahland, formerly head of Skoda. Bernhard Maier, previously in charge of sales for Porsche, now will head up Skoda.

VW is eliminating its Production Dept. as a result of greater regional responsibility given to the brands. “Going forward, the brands and regions will also have greater independence with regard to production, Supervisory Board Chairman Berthold Huber says. “So it follows that they should also hold the responsibility for these activities.”

The new management model will be implemented in early 2016, VW says.

Christian Klingler, in charge of sales and a VW-brand board member, will leave the company. Müller will oversee sales until further notice, the automaker says. Jürgen Stackmann, formerly in charge of SEAT, takes over Klingler’s role on the brand board. VW says Klingler’s departure is not tied to the Dieselgate scandal.

Luca de Meo, head of Audi sales, moves to head of SEAT. All executive moves are effective Oct. 1. Additional shakeup is expected in VW and Audi’s management ranks as a result of the automaker’s near-decade-long rigging of diesel emissions testing.