“Of course, sometimes it's an extreme challenge to navigate this tanker and balance the (different) interests,” says Matthias Mueller, executive director of the Volkswagen Group. Having made public the intentions of Volkswagen to reduce competition from Skoda, its access brand, Mueller is now looking for ways for everyone to co-exist in greater harmony.
To this end, the group will seek to distinguish more clearly between the Volkswagen, Skoda and SEAT brands, reducing product overlaps and thus alleviating internal tensions. Mueller and the group's executive board set a new focus for the three volume brands in the European market, based on 14 target consumer groups.
The objective, according to Mueller, is to achieve perfect coverage of the market, but with clear action areas for each of the brands, without any overlapping. For that, there will have to be a better use than what we currently see of the synergies that exist in the group.
The Skoda Competition
Volkswagen managers and unions are looking to reduce Skoda's competition, transferring part of its production to Germany and forcing the brand to pay more for the shared technology. Obviously one would expect a reaction from the Czech brand.The main union at Skoda has already threatened with cuts in overtime work, due to the possibility of part of the production leaving for Germany, putting at risk jobs in Czech units. And it doesn't stop with the unions – the Czech Prime Minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, has already demanded a meeting with the brand's leadership.
Porsche and Audi have to line up needles
Brand positioning continues to be an emotional issue within the group. Even when it comes to its premium brands – Porsche and Audi -, which will also see its more differentiated positioning. Tensions between the two have also been publicly commented on, whether by the leadership in platform or technology development or by Dieselgate's costs.
Despite the differences, the two brands are collaborating together in the development of a new platform exclusively for electric cars, called PPE (Premium Platform Electric), from which three model families will be derived: one for Porsche and two for Audi.
A 30% workload reduction is to be expected when compared to separate operation of the MLB (Audi) and MSB (Porsche) platforms – MLB is to be abandoned in the future in favor of MSB. The German group's ultimate goal is to reduce costs and increase operational efficiency, either to deal with the costs associated with Diesegate, or to raise the necessary funds for investment in trams.