Volkswagen’s new boss faces some enduring challenges

The id.buzz camper van is a symbol of what Herbert Diess hoped to achieve as boss of Volkswagen. The battery-powered update of the classic vw bus, launched in 2022, sought to haul an old-fashioned institution into the electric era. But Mr Diess’s effort to turn the German giant into an electric-vehicle (ev) juggernaut ended abruptly on July 22nd, when the firm announced he would leave the top job in a few weeks. He will be succeeded by Oliver Blume, who now runs Porsche, the group’s high-performance marque.

Mr Diess was poached from bmw, initially to shake up the struggling mass-market vw brand by cutting costs and jobs. In 2018 he was named boss of the whole vast firm, which made 8.6m cars last year and owns eight car brands, from Porsche to the considerably less fancy Skoda. His task was to clear up the mess left by “dieselgate” and electrify Volkswagen, literally as well as metaphorically. He has earmarked nearly €90bn ($90bn) for investment in evs, batteries and software by 2026.