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Ferdinand Piëch, who led Volkswagen from 1993 to 2002 and remained Chairman of its Supervisory Board from 2002 to 2015 before resigning (or being dismissed) amid the giant scandal of cheating diesel in the company, is deceased, according to German media and Automotive News. He was 82 years old.
Handelsblatt reports that Piëch collapsed in a Bavarian restaurant and was then taken to the hospital where he died.
Piëch, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, was one of the most influential personalities in the international automotive industry and, no doubt, strongly responsible for the modern Volkswagen as we know it today. At least, before the diesel fraud forces a permanent pivot to electric vehicles, as well as his own departure from the company of his family.
Training engineer, Piëch began his career at Porsche in 1963, before moving to Audi, where he eventually became CEO. During his tenure in both companies, he not only helped modernize production and technology, he also introduced the world to some of the most famous racing cars he has ever seen, including the Porsche 917 and Audi Quattro who dominated at Le Mans and in the rally races.
He became president of Volkswagen in the early 90s and helped save this company from financial turbulence. From the Automotive News obit:
With quality problems and high costs, Volkswagen became profitable, producing better vehicles without large-scale job cuts, while Piech won the allegiance of unions and shareholders. He continued to guide the strategy after becoming Chairman of the Supervisory Board in 2002.
When Piëch took the reins of Volkswagen, he became incredibly hungry for prestige brands, adding Lamborghini, Bentley, Ducati and Bugatti to the stable. It has moved to VW's top category and, most importantly, to the growth of VW's North American business, when Volkswagen was remembered here, it was old noisy pickups and Wheezy Rabbit diesel pickups. .
But as this story notes, its ultimate achievement was, so to speak, to fully integrate Porsche into the Volkswagen Group in 2012. For decades, the mix between the two family-related companies was commonplace (and Porsche has even tried to acquire the much larger Volkswagen In 2008.)
He was known to be a hardcharger, in a company with many people who consider themselves hardchargers. Piëch was nevertheless a class apart, Bob Lutz even calling him "autocrat of the autocrat".
He was accused of having an affair with his cousin's wife in order to alter the delicate balance of family shares in the company, as reported by Der Speigel. His direct and fierce control over his family's business was legendary, as was his iron fist.
This is what Handelsblatt wrote about him in 2017:
In keeping with his pugnacious attitude, the word "war" appears surprisingly often in Mr Piëch's interviews and speeches. Some say that he has lived his life in a constant state of battle, while others speak more lightly of the competition. This certainly applies to the way he exchanged blows with the Americans and the Japanese. From the beginning, Mr. Piëch concluded that only five to ten major automobile groups could still remain in the global market. That's why he finally decided that VW needed "snipers to lead them".
Specifically, he saw this as a product development and marketing job, which was to function as "an air force and an air force". It quickly became clear that with this military logic, Mr. Piëch was not trying to rank fourth in Europe, but first in the world. "Piëch was dyslexic and never learned to express it in a politically correct way," said a longtime associate. His messages were essentially war reports and the recognition of his achievements.
Under Piëch, Volkswagen became a huge conglomerate that manufactured tiny diesel microcars for $ 2 million hypercars and literally everything else. We have often said that Piëch's vision was one where VW did not just make cars, but made all the cars.
Indeed, VW's gigantic incursion into the diesel industry in the United States would probably not have taken place under his direction and corporate culture. (He later testified that he informed the board of directors about diesel cheating in 2015, which they disputed.) But it is no secret that this aggressive aggression has caused society and the problems it faces today.
Merciless, brilliant and some would even say megalomaniac, Piëch's contributions to the modern automotive industry can not be ignored. And even if it is not affectionate, we will remember him.
Additional material by Raphael Orlove
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