VW CEO may stay on to launch next Golf, report says
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Winterkorn, pictured introducing the latest VW Golf in Berlin last September, wants a "decisive role" in the next generation of Europe's top-selling car. Photo credit: Reuters |
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BERLIN (Reuters) -- Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said he may stay at the helm of Europe's biggest carmaker beyond the term of his current contract to launch the new Golf model, German magazine Der Spiegel reported.
VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech said in an interview last November that Winterkorn could stay for another five to seven years and that he had asked his chief executive to take charge of the next Golf.
"I want to play a decisive role in shaping the next generation of the Golf," Winterkorn told the magazine in an interview with Spiegel published on Saturday. The next makeover of VW's best-selling model may come to market around 2018.
Winterkorn's second term as CEO of VW runs out in December 2016. The 65-year-old executive has been at the helm of the Wolfsburg-based auto manufacturer since January 2007.
Winterkorn also told Spiegel that VW currently has more than 120,000 orders for the seventh-generation Golf hatchback, Europe's top-selling car, which went on sale last year.
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