Volkswagen CEO calls it quits

Volkswagen, Europe’s largest car manufacturer, suffered losses in its share prices after reports that Chief Executive Officer Bernd Pischetsrieder is leaving at the end of December.

Bernd was the CEO of the Munich-based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, and after that he led Volkswagen. He had also once headed the Audi division and groomed Winterkorn, his current successor.

Pischetsrieder will be stepping down at the end of this year, though no reasons were cited for the same. His contract was extended until 2012 only six months ago, and so the timing of the move has come as a surprise even for the experts.

Winterkorn, who is expected to replace Pischetsrieder, has been head of the Audi luxury car unit since March 2002, which has been the most profitable unit of Volkswagen for quiet some time.

Shares of Volkswagen fell as much as 1.49 euros to 79.76 euros and were down 0.9 percent to 80.50 euros as of 9:05 a.m. in Frankfurt, soon after the reports of the departure started coming in.

The company's shares have risen 80 percent this year, the best performance on Germany's benchmark DAX Index, which shows optimism over whether Pischetsrieder’s presence would boost profit.

Pischetsrieder's departure has brought back up the question his attempt to unite the European truck majors MAN AG, Scania AB and Volkswagen's Brazilian heavy-truck division to create one of the largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles.

Among other contributions of Pischetsrieder towards the benefit of the company, he tried to reduce competition among Volkswagen's main brands by reorganizing the company into two divisions, one consisting of the Volkswagen, Bentley and Skoda brands and the other including Audi, Lamborghini and Seat.

His departure is being seen as a grave step to the company’s immediate future, though the decision was instigated by the move of Volkswagen to attempt the merger of Europe’s larges truck producers MAN and Scania with a VW owned Brazilian truck major getting backfired.