Porsche boss to take over entire Volkswagen Group

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume will replace Herbert Diess as the new chief executive of the Volkswagen Group.

A vote by the European car-maker’s supervisory board forced Diess to step down after a four-year stint in the top job.

Blume will take over from September 1 but will keep his position at Porsche to remain heavily involved in the sports car brand’s public listing on the stock market.

Now 54, Blume was once an Audi trainee and rose through the ranks to become production boss at Porsche in 2009 before eventually taking the reins as CEO in 2013.

Some stock market analysts have expressed concern that Blume will remain CEO at Porsche, with the original hope he would dedicate all his time to improving relations with Volkswagen unions.

Ahead of a potential listing in the fourth quarter, it was also expected in some circles that the Porsche IPO would create a new entity with far greater independence from the VW empire, but with Blume remaining that may not transpire.

Issues now facing Blume include slashing production times for Volkswagen Group EVs that reportedly take three times longer to build that an equivalent Tesla, heavily impacting on profit margins.

Despite this, Volkswagen is now a leader in the electric car market in Europe, accounting for 25 per cent of all EV sales, compared with Tesla’s 13 per cent.