Since its inception, Cariad, the Volkswagen subsidiary in charge of coding the software for future electric and autonomous models, has been accumulating difficulties. Therefore, the German car giant Volkswagen has decided to review its management.
At the beginning of June, Peter Bosch, current head of production for the luxury limousine brand Bentley, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, will take over the management of Cariad from Dirk Hilgenberg. Two former executives from luxury car maker Porsche, also owned by Volkswagen, are also joining Cariad’s board of directors.
The head of the German manufacturer, Oliver Blume, has put the recovery of the software subsidiary at the center of his priorities:
“When I took office in September 2022, I underlined that Cariad is a key success factor” for Volkswagen, at the heart of the electric and connected revolution initiated by the automotive industry, he recalled in a press release on Monday.
An internal “transformation board”
Cariad’s problems are linked to internal discrepancies and work overload, which have caused delays in the development of software platforms, and consequently for the launches of electric models at Porsche and Audi, also impacting the family of electric ID models of the VW brand.
Volkswagen’s main competitors in electrics, the American Tesla and the Chinese BYD, were able to advance their pawns at the same time. In addition to a change in management, Cariad will have an internal “transformation council” tasked with leading the “transformation and development of the cooperation between Cariad and the Volkswagen group brands,” explains Cariad member Michael Steiner. supervisory board, cited in the press release.
The stumbles of Cariad, an entity directly supervised by former Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess, were one of the main reasons for the latter’s hasty departure last summer. Volkswagen, which meets its shareholders at a general meeting on Wednesday, gained 0.30% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Monday.
Source: BFM TV
