Volkswagen commissions Bentley production boss to manage the ailing software division
The Volkswagen Group has taken the broom to the boardroom of Cariad, its ailing software development division that has delayed many car projects.
Peter Bosch, most recently manufacturing manager at Bentley and board member at Scout, Volkswagen’s new EV pickup and SUV brand for North America, has been appointed CEO of Cariad. He will take up his new role on June 1 of this year.
In addition to leading Cariad, he will also be responsible for the division’s finance, purchasing and IT functions.
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As recently reportedthe only current Cariad board member to retain his role will be Rainer Zugeh, who will continue to serve as Cariad’s Chief People Officer.
Cariad’s new board will consist of just four people, including “two recognized software experts”, but it is not known who these people are. Volkswagen said their names would be announced “in the near future.”
While the management team is changing, Cariad’s focus has not changed. Your task is still the development of a new end-to-end electronics architecture for all brands of the Volkswagen Group as well as the basics for the “development of software-defined vehicles”.
Delays in the earlier project have caused start dates for the upcoming one Audi Q6 etron And Porsche Macan EV to slide. The Macan EV was originally due to be unveiled in 2022 but has since been pushed back to 2023 and now 2024.
Issues for the latter are delaying the rollout of Level 4 autonomous driving software to 2028 at the earliest, and have similarly delayed the rollout of the new SSP vehicle architecture, which is set to replace the existing MEB and forthcoming PPE platforms.
These issues have reportedly caused Volkswagen’s brands to push for greater software autonomy, but that doesn’t seem to have been granted.
Instead, Oliver Blume says Cariad will proceed with the 10-point plan he outlined in September 2022 when he took over as CEO of Volkswagen Group, including “sharpening Cariad’s core competencies”, updating brand interfaces and releasing “realistic [release] sequences for software architectures” and the intensification of “technology partnerships with strong tech players”.
Speak with Automotive News EuropeBlume confirmed that the company is looking for new positions for current Cariad CEO Dirk Hilgenberg and the rest of the existing Cariad board.
Cariad was founded by Herbert Diess during his tenure as CEO of the car manufacturer in order to bundle and centralize all software development activities of the Volkswagen Group.
