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On August 31, Herbert Diess, on his last day at Volkswagen, posted a long farewell on social platforms, arguing that his seven years at Volkswagen were the most valuable years of his career. Herbert Diess officially stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group Management Committee today, bidding farewell to Volkswagen Group after seven years.

On July 23, Volkswagen Group announced that Herbert Diess, then CEO of Volkswagen Group, would leave the company at the end of August, and Oliver Blume, current CEO of Porsche, would take over his position from September 1. It should be noted that Volkswagen Group did not explain the reason for Diss 'departure in its statement, and there are still three full years before the expiration of his term of office, which belongs to unilateral termination of contract. For this reason, Diss received a full salary of 30 million euros (about 200 million yuan).

According to the data, Diss joined the Volkswagen Group in 2015, when the Volkswagen Group had just been exposed to the diesel door incident, and Diss joined the Volkswagen Group at the invitation of Piech, then chairman of the supervisory board of the Volkswagen Group. After joining Volkswagen Group, Diss took the position of CEO of Volkswagen Brand and successfully turned Volkswagen Group into a safe place through a series of control measures. In February 2017, Volkswagen Group announced its 2016 financial final report, showing that total sales for the whole year reached 217.267 billion euros and operating profit (profit before tax) reached 7.103 billion euros, reversing the fiscal deficit in 2015. More importantly, Volkswagen Group sales overtook Toyota Group, including Volkswagen, Skoda, Porsche, Audi, Bentley and other brands accumulated sales of 10.3 million vehicles, an increase of 3.8% year-on-year.

It is understood that Volkswagen Group was exposed to emissions fraud in September 2015, when Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Wendern resigned, and then Porsche CEO Mullen was appointed CEO of Volkswagen Group, who must lead Volkswagen out of the emissions scandal crisis. Since then, Volkswagen Group won the global sales championship in 2016 and 2017, but for two years it has been paying for the emissions scandal, and finally Mullen was pulled off the platform, leaving two years before the contract expired.

In April 2018, Diess succeeded Mullen as CEO of Volkswagen Group. Since taking over Volkswagen, Diss has carried out a series of drastic reforms, not only cutting off the loss-making and huge investment in Phaeton business, but also pushing for cost reduction and putting more money into autonomous driving technology and electric vehicle research and development. Of course, the most direct and effective way to cut costs is to lay people off, and in order to quickly transform to electric and digital, dis streamlined non-core businesses and brands and tried to cut more jobs, which angered the union. However, at that time, Diss had been in office for less than a year, and the layoffs were also agreed upon within the supervisory board. It was not easy for the trade union to accuse him.

Fortunately, Dees 'reforms were beginning to bear fruit. According to the financial report, Volkswagen's full-year sales revenue rose 7.1% year-on-year to 252.6 billion euros in 2019, operating profit excluding special project expenses rose 12.8% year-on-year to 19.3 billion euros, and cumulative vehicle sales rose 1.3% year-on-year to 10.97 million vehicles.

In September 2019, at the Frankfurt Auto Show, the long-lost Volkswagen Group Night kicked off again. At the event site, Volkswagen Group released a brand-new LOGO for Volkswagen brand and brought the only new car-Volkswagen ID.3. In November 2019, Volkswagen ID.3 was officially put into production at the Zwickau plant in Germany, and the new car is scheduled to be delivered first in the European market in spring 2020.

However, when the model was about to be delivered, it ran into trouble. According to German media "Manager Magazine" reported that in less than half a year from the listing, Volkswagen ID.3 suddenly encountered a large number of software BUG, although the public gathered a "ten thousand technical team" to repair, but there are still BUG endless emergence every day. At a small meeting after ID.3's software problems, representatives of the "two families" were angry, and Dees fell into "class crisis" for the first time.

At that time, Diss 'term of office was about to expire, and he believed that he had fulfilled his promise at the beginning of his term of office, so he applied to the supervisory board for renewal, but was rejected by the supervisory board. After the failure to renew the contract, Diss announced to thousands of senior executives within Volkswagen Group that the software crisis of Volkswagen ID.3 had been leaked by the Supervisory Board, and some media outlets secretly pointed the finger at the union chairman when interpreting this matter. In response, the Volkswagen Supervisory Board suddenly announced a new appointment on June 8,2020, replacing Ralf Brandstaetter as CEO of the Volkswagen brand, Herbert Diess retaining only the position of CEO of the Volkswagen Group. This is the second time that Dees has faced a crisis of "class dismissal."

In the end, Dees had to compromise with the supervisory board. On June 9,2020, Volkswagen Group published a statement on its website entitled "Supervisory Board Accepts Dr. Herbert Diss 'Apology," in which Volkswagen directly posted the apology letter from the CEO of the Group on its website, which is extremely rare and undoubtedly humiliating for Diss.

After more than a year of seesaw battles, Dees and the supervisory board finally reached a compromise. In July 2021, the Volkswagen Supervisory Board held a meeting and voted to extend Diss 'work contract until 2025. Diss will still serve as Chairman of the Volkswagen Group's Global Management Board, but will no longer be responsible for the operation of the Group's core automobile brands and focus on the strategic management of the Group. At the same time, Diess will assume full responsibility for CARIAD, the software division of the Volkswagen Group. However, the slow development of CARIAD, the software division, once again pushed Diess to the forefront, causing him to fall into a third crisis, this time no more miracles, and finally Diess was abandoned by the Piech family and the Porsche family, leaving the Volkswagen Group three years early.

In fact, during his four years in charge of Volkswagen Group, Diss was no less stressed than previous CEOs, including the global epidemic of the new crown epidemic, the shortage of parts supply, the transformation of electrification, etc. In 2021, Volkswagen Group sold 8.882 million vehicles globally, down 4.5% year-on-year, of which Volkswagen sold 3.305 million vehicles in China, down 14.1% year-on-year, a record low in eight years. According to the latest data, Volkswagen Group's global sales fell 22.2% year-on-year to 3.875 million vehicles in the first half of 2022, with sales in China falling 20.5% year-on-year to 1.470 million vehicles. On the other hand, the large-scale software team led by Dees did not achieve the expected results, which was the trigger for the class.

As for where will Diss go after leaving Volkswagen Group? The initial investor of NIO quickly sent an invitation to Diss on Twitter, thinking that "Diss is a pioneer of true pure electric cars. It is a good thing to leave Volkswagen for Diss. Volkswagen has lost a good leader. He has nothing to worry about. Tesla or NIO welcome him." In addition, although Diss has locked Tesla into Volkswagen's future competitors, Diss has a good relationship with Musk in private, and speculation is that he may join Tesla. Of course, joining Tesla may not be easy.

Although Volkswagen ID. family's performance in the Chinese market is average, but in the joint venture electric vehicle market performance is obviously ahead of other enterprises, and as a car business brought up by Diss, how will the future market be interpreted in the Chinese market?

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