What's the news?
In December of last year, we reported that Dr. Herbert Diess was to leave BMW to take up a role as Chairman of Volkswagen Passenger Cars. It has now been confirmed by Volkswagen Group that he will take up his appointment as a full member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG at the earlier date of July 1, 2015.
This comes three months earlier than planned and is believed to have come about as a result of an agreement between Diess and BMW AG, where he had held the position of Member of the Board of Management responsible for Development.
During his tenure at the Munich carmaker Diess would have closely overseen the development of BMW's carbon fibre and electric vehicle technology in the BMW i sub-brand, and his experience with this will be of great use to Volkswagen.
Anything else?
The reduced amount of enforced 'gardening leave' will be good news to the Volkswagen Group, which is undoubtedly keen to get Diess into his new position as soon as possible. He will take over from Prof Dr. Martin Winterkorn, who will remain Chairman of the Group Board of Management.