Yahoo Autos The Man Behind VW's Wildest Cars Is Officially Selling His Stake In the Company
There are few more influential people in the automotive history than former VW chairman Ferdinand Piech. He's responsible for moonshots like the Le Mans-winning Porsche 917, the Audi Quattro, the Bugatti Veyron, the Volkswagen Phaeton, and VW's takeover of Bentley among other things. Bob Lutz once called him the "greatest living product guy." And now he's out at VW.
First rumored last month, Reuters (via Automotive News) reports that Piech has agreed to sell most of his 14.7-percent stake in Porsche SE, the holding company that owns a majority of the VW Group. The elder Piech's shares will be bought by members of VW's long-ruling Porsche and Piech familes, but it's unclear exactly what percentage he plans on selling.
Piech's exit ends a long-running spat with other bigwigs at Volkswagen that started with him leaving his position at the head of VW's supervisory board in April 2015. He was publicly at odds with then-VW CEO Martin Winterkorn, who himself resigned in September 2015 after news of the automaker's diesel-emissions cheating became public.
The elder Piech was a controversial figure at VW. His many successes–the Veyron, and Bentley among them–were tempered by buisness failures–the Phaeton–and it's been argued that his hard-line management style created the corporate culture that led to VW's diesel cheating.
He hasn't been part of VW's decision-making process since leaving his chairman position, but still, his full exit marks the end of a fascinating era. VW would not be what it is today without Piech...for better or for worse.
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