The day when Volkswagen rolled out the red carpet for Elon Musk was a wonderful day.
In Herbert Diess, the former CEO of the automaker created a friendly rivalry with the charismatic Tesla entrepreneur that saw the two defend each other as they landed in hot water.
A legacy car exec turned EV passionate advocate, Diess once invited Musk for a test drive on the airport runway ID.3, the first VW electric vehicle built from the ground up, taking a moment for posterity in the company’s newspaper.
Later the Austrian convinced Tesla’s CEO even gave a surprise address before the top management team.
It’s over now. Voice. Finito.
The successor of Oliver Blume must win over the hearts and minds of the workforce insecure yet highly regulated and has no plans to relax until his leading competitor, known union-buster, negotiations with the company managers revealed this week.
“It probably helped in the beginning,” said a VW insider fortune, talking in the background. “But after a while, the constant lecturing of Musk while talking about your own achievements starts to demotivate the team.”
Thanks Elon for always thinking outside the box. And to strengthen the market capitalization of our industry and help cut German bureaucracy.
– Herbert Diess (@Herbert_Diess) April 22, 2022
Predecessor Diess angered the unions with his adulation of Tesla
In the middle of the 2021 chip crisis, for example, a gasket blew at the local office of the IG Metall trade union in Wolfsburg, home of VW’s historic factory.
In the newsletter for members who demanded Diess stop obsessing over Musk, do the work and buy more semiconductors so that the plant can produce cars again.
“The way you systematically badmouth all without exception is insufferable for us proud employees,” wrote the union, which counts almost every VW assembly line worker as a dues-paying member. “Your praise for the competition is almost ruining the business.”
A demanding CEO in the mold of Musk, Diess is famous for managing through conflicts, provoking managers and unions regularly to the point where he is always one step away from getting the sack.
The Austrians also earned an internal reputation for saving in the wrong areas: expensive materials in the car’s interior were replaced by hard plastic surfaces that felt cheap to the touch.
But the former BMW executive is widely respected even in the workforce for steering the company firmly on the path to zero-emissions cars after VW’s decade-long diesel emissions scandal was uncovered shortly after he joined.
The new CEO spent a decade away from Volkswagen’s northern German heartland
When Diess’s constant provocations turned into internal disturbances, the board appointed Blume, who immediately angered the VW workers.
From the start, the 54-year-old chose to split duties, voluntarily remaining in Stuttgart as CEO of luxury brand Porsche rather than moving to Wolfsburg.
This makes him the only German to run two listed blue chip companies worth nearly $200 billion in combined market cap.
Any distance with Musk will only add to the temperament in the workforce that matches the cars he builds.
He has a face almost unknown to the general shopfloor workers in the line of the Golf Council in Wolfsburg, a city that literally sprang up around the VW factory.
His last full-time stint at headquarters ended a decade ago when Blume headed south to join the c-suite at the prestigious sports car manufacturer in 2013, where he remains.
With a new mindset & revolution at the Wolfsburg headquarters, we can succeed in the new competition. Great meeting with 200 top managers in Alpbach. Great responsibility at an important point for our company. Thx for joining @ErinMeyerINSEAD & @elonmusk,we will visit you in Grünheide pic.twitter.com/dwYyXZnBT8
– Herbert Diess (@Herbert_Diess) October 16, 2021
So when it comes to familiarizing Volkswagen employees, internal communication does not give them the opportunity to emphasize that they grew up next to Wolfsburg in Brunswick, the heart of the region’s history. Message: new boss bat for home team.
VW’s new CEO dubbed ‘anti-visionary’
Outside of the VW, they are completely empty.
Blume is virtually unknown to the wider German public, which makes it easy to question his motives.
Environmentalists seized on early support for carbon-neutral synthetic fuel as evidence the new CEO was not committed to Diess from VW’s combustion engine line.
Blume then began to delay some key EV models Diess had put into development for further polishing.
Weekly newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper supported at the end of January, Blume was yanking the company back to solid ground from its harsh reality, summing the new VW boss up in one pithy title: “The anti-visionary”.
Asked by fortune whether he agrees with the less than flattering take, the German said on Tuesday that he saw little need to put himself in the spotlight. Nor do they seek to compare themselves to those who claim to know the future a year from now—people like Diess and Musk, in other words.
“The only thing that matters is whether the customer is satisfied with our product, so I see it clearly as a team player,” he said during the group’s annual press conference. “You might as well call me a service provider.”
But Blume emphasized the importance of marshalling forces behind a new 10-point plan to restore luster to cars like the less-received ID.3 hatchback.
Once likened in the same breath to the iconic Beetle or Golf, the EV has undergone a refresh to replace the Diess’ cheap interior with higher quality materials after more than two years on the market.
To accomplish his task, he needs the support of VW’s influential labor leaders who comprise half of the board of directors, where he is the voice of the 117,000-strong domestic workforce.
And they see red when it comes to Musk.
When Volkswagen on Wednesday unveiled a $25,000 EV concept that could compete with Tesla, the head of the eponymous brand was asked if he thought Blume could invite Musk back to headquarters for a test drive.
Laughing thoughtfully, Thomas Schäfer smiled before giving a short answer. “Not at all.”