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VW CFO Hans Dieter Potsch nominated as new board chairman

The search for a successor to Ferdinand Piech has come to an end as the Volkswagen Group has nominated a new chairman. The Executive and Nomination committees of VW's Supervisory Board have put their weight behind one Hans Dieter Potsch, who currently serves on the company's management board as its chief financial officer. He's expected to continue in his current role until November when an extraordinary general meeting of the supervisory board can be called to confirm his nomination and a replacement CFO can be found to take his place. As you may recall, the chairmanship of the Volkswagen board fell until recently to Ferdinand Piech, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and one of the principals of the Porsche family that holds over 50 percent ownership in Volkswagen through Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Piech went head to head with VW CEO Martin Winterkorn and ultimately lost. Piech resigned and Winterkorn is about to have his term as chief executive extended through the end of 2018. In Piech's place, former union head Berthold Huber was named as interim chairman, but is now referred to in the statement below once again as deputy chairman instead. An Austrian native, Potsch is an industrial engineer by training. He started his career at BMW where he ultimately served as group controller, and subsequently served as CFO and as chairman at a number of German corporations. Potsch joined the VW management board in 2003, initially without portfolio, and soon assumed the financial portfolio – a role he has held until now. In 2009 he took on the additional role of chief financial officer at the Porsche holding company, whose supervisory board representatives are the parties proposing Potsch's nomination as the group's new chairman – even though he is not, strictly speaking, one of their own. In a related development, it appears that Julia Kuhn-Piech will be leaving her board seat sooner than expected. The departing chairman Ferdinand Piech opposed his niece's nomination to the board in his place, and now she'll apparently be stepping down to make way for the family's new choice of chairman.

Volkswagen Golf R 400 will come to US

If you're like us, and have been drooling over the Volkswagen Golf R 400 concept since it was first unveiled in Beijing last year, we've got some potentially good news for you. Dr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser, member of the board of management responsible for development at Volkswagen, told Autoblog that the Golf R 400 will definitely come to the US... if it gets the production green light, anyway. Neusser says that the US market has had a hugely positive reaction to the seventh-generation Golf family. The new hatch won both Motor Trend Car of the Year and North American Car of the Year, and Volkswagen has expanded the Golf range to include a bunch of new variants, including the electric e-Golf and recently released SportWagen. The Golf R 400 would "fit very well into this strategy," says Neusser. The hotter Golfs have been successful, too. When Volkswagen opened the order books for the 2015 Golf R, the yearly allocation for the US sold out in just 11 hours. Neusser says the R 400 will "show how sporty the Golf family can be." We're certainly in favor of this hottest hatch hitting our market. All we need now, is for Volkswagen to officially give it the go-ahead.

Volkswagen Group launches Truck and Bus GmbH

Volkswagen is not only one of the largest automakers in the world – it's also one of the biggest producers of commercial vehicles. Not just vans like the Caddy and Crafter, but proper trucks and buses. And now it's reorganizing them all under the newly incorporated Truck & Bus GmbH. The new division brings VW's two truck manufacturers MAN and Scania under one roof. MAN is, after all, wholly owned by Volkswagen, and in turn holds over 75 percent of the shares in Scania (as well as MAN Latin America). Along with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, they make the Volkswagen Group one of the largest truck manufacturers in the world, behind Daimler and Volvo (the truck manufacturer is separate from the automaker). Although VW Commercial Vehicles will apparently not form part of Truck & Bus GmbH (since it makes smaller vans more than trucks and buses), it will also report to Andreas Renschler, the Volkswagen board member in charge of the company's work vehicle operations. Renschler previously served in a similar role at Daimler. In a bit of a reversal – or a sign of things to come – Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn (who just survived a failed overthrow attempt by ousted chairman Ferdinand Piech) will sit as chair of the supervisory board of Truck & Bus GmbH. Wolfsburg, 05 May 2015 Volkswagen creates integrated commercial vehicles group • Truck & Bus GmbH to become holding for commercial vehicle brands • Prof. Martin Winterkorn: "MAN and Scania will together become global champion" • Board Member for Commercial Vehicles Andreas Renschler: "MAN and Scania brands retain their independence" • Works Council Chairman Bernd Osterloh: "The holding strengthens employees' participation rights" Volkswagen is creating the integrated commercial vehicles group and thus putting in place a structured framework for business with mid-sized and heavy trucks and buses. Truck & Bus GmbH is to become the new Volkswagen Group holding for the MAN und Scania commercial vehicle brands. This was decided yesterday (Monday) by the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG. To this end, the shares in Scania AB held by Volkswagen AG will be transferred to Truck & Bus GmbH. The wholly-owned Volkswagen subsidiary already holds 75.28 percent of the voting rights in MAN SE. Truck & Bus GmbH will establish processes specific to the commercial vehicles business, thus leveraging the full synergy potential between the brands.