After the initial difficulties and delays in the development of its own car software, Volkswagen is changing the management staff of the responsible Cariad division. Among other things, the Bentley manager Peter Bosch should replace the previous boss Dirk Hilgenberg, said the Wolfsburg.
The supervisory board of the IT subsidiary, headed by VW CEO Oliver Blume, had previously decided on the personnel. Bosch is to take over the management of Cariad at the beginning of June and then also control finances, purchasing and internal information technology.
According to information from company circles, it has not yet been clarified what Hilgenberg’s future will look like. His successor Bosch has so far been responsible for production at the British luxury brand Bentley. In addition, “two proven software experts” are to move into the Cariad board, as Volkswagen announced. Names have not yet been mentioned here. Currently, Thomas Sedran is Chief Financial Officer and Lynn Longo is Head of Development. Personnel Director Rainer Zugeh should stay there.
Difficulties with in-house software development
Volkswagen’s in-house software development has faced major difficulties in recent years. Before last weekend there had already been reports that Blume, who took office as the new CEO in September 2022, wanted to depose the top management of Cariad and implement another reform of the processes. Now there is a decision. On Wednesday, the VW shareholders will also meet for the general meeting.
One of Blume’s first actions – he took over the management of VW after Herbert Diess left the company and runs Porsche at the same time – was to straighten out the schedules for programming finished versions at the main brand, Audi and Porsche in the fall. The influential subsidiaries in Ingolstadt and Stuttgart had repeatedly criticized Cariad’s strategy behind the scenes. Delays meant that model launches were delayed and significant additional costs were incurred. The upper class suppliers feared that there could be further expensive postponements if Cariad first insisted on the development of a standard software suitable for all group brands.
An IT and electronics platform based on the future fully digitized VW core model Trinity was actually planned by 2026. It was adjourned until the end of the decade. The aim is a “scalable” operating system (VW.OS) for all equipment levels for all cars from Europe’s largest car company.
