Volkswagen Group names new software chief

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen Group on Wednesday said it was replacing software chief Christian Senger and moving the center of its groupwide software development from its Wolfsburg headquarters to Ingolstadt, where premium brand Audi is based.

Senger, the current chief executive of Volkswagen Group's Car.Software unit, will be replaced by Dirk Hilgenberg, who is former senior vice president of manufacturing engineering at BMW, the automaker said in a release.

German business daily newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Sunday that Senger, a former BMW manager, would be replaced after clashes with the company and concern about software problems with the recent ID3 full-electric and the eighth-generation of the Golf, VW top-seller in Europe.

VW Group CEO Herbert Diess revealed Tuesday during a virtual conference that leadership for software development at the company would shift to Audi.

Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who is also VW Group's head of development as well as a former BMW executive, said a new software operating system would be developed at the unit and the system would be trialled at the company's Artemis agile development unit headed by former Apple and Porsche executive Alexander Hitzinger.

By the end of the year, the Car.Software organization will have approximately 5,000 specialists tasked with developing common software for all brands at VW Group, which includes Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini.

Audi will also be responsible for exploring solutions for data-driven business models and innovations at the group, VW said, adding that more than 7 billion euros will be invested for these tasks by 2025.

Duesmann thanked Senger in the release for his "pioneering work" and said that Hilgenberg has "extensive international experience in the integration of software products and technologies."