Change at the top of Audi: Volkswagen chief strategist Gernot Döllner is to get the Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer back on track. The mechanical engineering graduate will replace Markus Duesmann at the helm of the VW subsidiary and on the Group Board of Management as of September 1, Audi announced on Thursday following a special meeting of the Supervisory Board. Döllner is now the right person to further sharpen Audi's product strategy and positioning in important markets, explained VW Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch.

Audi plans to launch more than 20 new cars on the market in the next two years, around half of which are to be purely electric vehicles. "We know Döllner as a versatile manager who has successfully mastered various projects in the Volkswagen Group," explained the representatives of the VW owner families, Wolfgang Porsche and Hans Michel Piech. "We are convinced that he will implement Audi's product strategy at high speed as a team player."

A person familiar with the matter cited Audi's sales weakness as one reason for Duesmann's replacement. The issue had been on the table since the end of last year. "It has gotten worse rather than better." In addition, many people in Ingolstadt, including at high and top management level, had said that things were not working out. "In the end, the mood was as bad as it had been with Diess."

Like the former VW boss, Duesmann had come to Audi from BMW. The Ingolstadt-based company currently has an old model fleet compared to BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and new vehicles have been largely absent over the past two years. In addition, the Q6 e-tron - an important model for Audi and the first new car in the product offensive - has been delayed on the market due to problems with software development. Sales have been correspondingly meagre of late: Although the Ingolstadt-based company sold 44 percent more electric cars in the first quarter, the increase at BMW and Mercedes-Benz was more than twice as high.

Audi is feeling the effects of this above all in China, its most important single market: "In terms of battery electric vehicles, we do not yet have the optimal vehicles for Chinese needs on the market, which is why sales figures have so far fallen short of our expectations," Duesmann recently admitted.

VW boss Oliver Blume has prescribed a higher return for Audi. The premium group, which has been renamed "Progressive" and includes the luxury carmakers Bentley and Lamborghini as well as the motorcycle manufacturer Ducati, is to achieve a return of 14 percent. Previously, the target was nine to eleven percent. Group CEO Blume, who also heads Porsche, emphasized that savings were not the main focus of the restructuring, but rather that efficiency would be increased and synergies between the brands better exploited. However, Volkswagen will not be able to manage without reducing labor costs. The measures are still being developed by the brands.

(Report by Christina Amann; edited by Sabine Wollrab. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)

- by Christina Amann