Oliver Blume

Oliver Blume became Chairman of the Board of Management (CEO) of Volkswagen AG in September 2022, uniquely also retaining his role as CEO of Porsche AG. This dual role reflects both the VW Group's complex multi-brand structure and the board's desire to bring Porsche's operational discipline to the broader group. Volkswagen Group — which encompasses VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, SEAT/Cupra, and Skoda — is the world's second-largest automaker by unit sales. Blume inherited extraordinary challenges. The VW Group's EV transition has been expensive and produced mixed results — while the ID. series of electric cars launched with fanfare, they have struggled with software issues (through the troubled CARIAD software unit) and have been significantly undercut on price by Chinese competitors, particularly BYD. The competitive threat from China has become existential: Chinese EVs offer comparable or superior technology at dramatically lower prices, threatening VW's position in both China (its largest market) and increasingly in Europe. In late 2024, Blume was forced to confront the previously unthinkable: potential factory closures in Germany. VW's German operations carry some of the highest labor costs in the global auto industry, and with EV production requiring fewer workers than combustion engine vehicles, overcapacity has become unsustainable. The resulting negotiations with IG Metall (the powerful German metalworkers' union) were dramatic and politically charged. Key stock drivers include EV sales volumes and margins, China market performance, cost reduction program execution, software crisis resolution, Porsche brand performance, and the success of restructuring German operations.