Herbert Diess is no longer the head of the Volkswagen Group. The leadership of the German consortium dismissed Diess after a period of five years at the head of its conglomerate of brands, naming, in passing, Oliver Blume as the group’s new CEO. This is news of profound significance for the industry given the weight of the Volkswagen Group in it and that it has happened in the middle of the transition stage to the electric car, with all the challenges that it raises.
Blume will make effective his incorporation at the head of the German consortium on September 1 and since then he will orchestrate the entire company while continuing to lead Porschesince the largest shareholders of the Volkswagen Group (which are still the Porsche and Piech families) have wanted it to remain that way.
Oliver Blume has largely been the architect of the success that Porsche is enjoying these days.. An excellent situation that occurs in all fields for the Stuttgart firm, both financially, as well as socially/culturally and technologically. In addition, the possibility of Porsche breaking into the Stock Exchange at the end of this year is being considered, which could end up curling the loop in Porsche, although it remains to be seen how the events unfold, since after the change of third that has taken place within the group, there would be two different companies commanded by the same person trading on the same market.
Be that as it may, the truth is that the challenges that arise for the new director are the same, broadly speaking, with those that Diess was dealing with successfully until now. The Volkswagen Group is still immersed in a race with Tesla, who is largely responsible for the transition to the electric car in which the automobile industry finds itself, while developing its own software for the conglomerate of Volkswagen Group brands continues to seem like an absolute priority.
In this sense, the most striking thing is how the new CEO of the consortium will deal with all situations, since they exist notable differences in the way of understanding the transition of the industry between Diess and Blume.
And it is that, while the first has always been radically in favor of battery-powered electric cars, and has come to want to follow the Tesla model to the point of “imitating” its way of producing cars, the second is more neutral in technological terms, but it also has in its record an electric car as successful as the Porsche Taycan, which we remember has managed to take on a relevance at the height of the Porsche 911 itself within the brand. All this while in the background Porsche leads the development of synthetic fuels capable of operating without releasing emissions into the atmosphere.
Blume himself commented in a statement published by Porsche: “I am very excited to be able to lead both Porsche AG and the Volkswagen Group. My work will be focused on customers, brands and products. The human component is always a priority for me. Team spirit, integrity and passion are essential for success, and this applies to the brands and the Group in general. The Porsche team can rely on me to lead the company in the long term, also after a possible public offer for the sale of shares. We have put Porsche on the path to success in technology, finance and culture, and we see ourselves as a leader in sustainable mobility.”
Thus, it seems that Blume will apply the “Porsche formula” to the Volkswagen Group, which has led the German firm to success in recent years.
