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October 06, 2020 12:00 AM

Ex-VW CEO Mueller joins Piech EV startup

Peter Sigal
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    Piech Automotive aims to launch a full-electric two-seater sports car based on the Mark Zero concept (shown), with innovative battery technology and a fast charging time.

    Matthias Mueller, the former CEO of Volkswagen Group, has been named chairman of Piech Automotive, an electric-car startup run by the son of former VW Group Chairman Ferdinand Piech.

    Mueller is one of a number of high-profile figures involved in Piech Automotive, which was founded by Toni Piech and Rea Stark Rajcic, a Swiss designer and entrepreneur. They include the tech investor Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook.

    Piech Automotive said in a news release that it had completed its first round of investment with Thiel’s involvement, but did not provide further details. It announced that a second round to raise capital to launch a production car would be managed in the coming months under the leadership of UBS.

    "I was immediately enthusiastic about the mission of the two founders, because it is more compelling and more visionary than all the new approaches I have encountered during my work in the automotive industry," Mueller said.

    Mueller was ousted by VW Group’s board, controlled by the Piech-Porsche clan, in April 2018 and replaced by Herbert Diess.

    Mueller, a former CEO of sports-car maker Porsche, had taken the top job at VW Group after the automaker's diesel cheating scandal. He was seen by insiders as a reluctant chief executive at VW Group who had an uneasy relationship with the government of Lower Saxony, which is VW’s second-largest shareholder.

    Piech Automotive leadership team: Pictured from left are Piech Automotive co-CEO Klaus Schmidt; co-founder Toni Piech; former VW CEO Matthias Mueller; co-founder Rea Stark Rajcic.

    Piech Automotive showed the Mark Zero coupe in concept form at the 2019 Geneva auto show. The company says its fast-charging system could charge the battery to 80 percent in less than five minutes, using an energy recovery system and air-cooled battery pack developed with a Hong Kong company.

    The Mark Zero was planned as the first of a model family that would launch by 2023 and include a two-seater, a four-seater and an SUV. 

    The company said this week that construction of prototypes would begin soon and that an engineering campus is being built in Memmingen, Germany.

    In addition to Mueller, Piech Automotive announced Klaus Schmidt, the company’s chief technology officer and a BMW veteran, would become co-CEO with Andreas Henke, chief marketing officer. Henke most recently worked for audio manufacturer Burmester, and also worked at Porsche.

    Reuters contributed to this report

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    Piech Mark Zero

    Quantum Group founding partner Rea Stark is also co-founder of Piech Automobile, which unveiled the Mark Zero electric coupe concept, shown, at the 2019 Geneva auto show.

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    Piech Mark Zero
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