VW confirms Bentley production chief to take over Cariad software unit

Peter Bosch, production chief at Bentley, will become CEO of Volkswagen Group‘s software unit Cariad on June 1, taking over from Dirk Hilgenberg.

Bosch will also assume responsibility for finance, purchasing and IT, VW said on Monday in a statement

Bosch is a former Oliver Wyman consultant who spent nearly seven years at the VW brand before moving to Bentley in 2017.

“He is a strategist, an enabler and a team player,” VW Group CEO Oliver Blume said of Bosch in the statement.

Two further software experts will join the board alongside Bosch, VW said. Rainer Zugehoer will remain as chief people officer, in charge of human resources.

VW is in talks with Hilgenberg and his team about new roles within the automaker, Blume said.

The changes come as VW undergoes a strategic review of Cariad, which Blume said involves “stepping up the pace and broadening our approach to partnerships.”

Blume ordered a review of every facet of the carmaker after taking over from former leader Herbert Diess last September, who set up Cariad but failed to put it on solid footing.

Cariad has been dogged by delays and overspending, with a new software platform intended to enable “Level 4” autonomous driving, due to be implemented across the fleet from 2026, pushed back to the end of the decade, sources have said.

Cariad’s problems delayed the launches of the Porsche electric Macan and the new Audi Q6 e-tron. Both EVs are key models for the two brands’ electrification strategies to compete with Tesla.

The brands’ executives put intense pressure on Blume to reorganize Cariad and return more responsibility for software development to individual brands, according to reports.

Blume’s predecessor Diess bundled VW’s efforts on the matter into Cariad to try to streamline development and retain control over what he believed would be the key area of innovation for cars in the future.

Cariad has exceeded its budget and failed to meet goals, contributing to Diess’ departure. Porsche and Audi complained that Cariad is too closely interwoven with their development processes causing internal discord and project delays.

Bosch will restructure Cariad and explore new partnerships with tech companies while also expanding VW Group’s automated driving cooperation with Intel’s Mobileye, reports said.

The changes suggest that Blume is sticking with the concept of developing an in-house software platform, according to Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska.

“Bringing in Peter (Bosch) from Bentley shows that this is still supposed to be a Volkswagen-led thing,” Roeska said. “Does this impact the premium platform delivery? That’s the only question that matters right now.”

Bloomberg contributed to this report