VW creates mobility unit to focus on EVs, AVs

BERLIN -- Volkswagen's passenger-car business is reorganizing to combine the emerging fields of electromobility and digitalization into a "New Mobility" division under the leadership of Thomas Ulbrich, the brand's current development chief.

In the new role, Ulbrich will be responsible for VW's current ID battery-electric cars and future models that will be based on VW Group's new, highly scalable SSP platform, including the VW brand's upcoming full-electric, self-driving car being developed under the Trinity project.

Ulbrich will also join the supervisory board of Cariad, VW’s software unit, tasked with ensuring close cooperation between Cariad and VW brand's development division.

VW brand CEO Thomas Schaefer said the restructuring is aimed at creating a strong foundation for "systematically driving forward the company’s transformation toward a software-oriented mobility provider."

With the new division, "we are bundling the strategic action areas of electric mobility and software, thereby increasing our pace of innovation," Schaefer said in a statement on Tuesday

Software troubleshooter

Ulbrich made his reputation as a troubleshooter at VW after rescuing the ID3 compact electric hatchback, the first of the automaker's new generation of EVs, after its launch was hit by software glitches.

An engineer, Ulbrich, 56, joined VW in 1992. He takes up the new role on Oct. 1. Ulbrich was an Automotive News Europe Eurostar in 2019.

VW did not say how large the New Mobility division will be but it is likely to involve development engineers and an interdisciplinary team focused on batteries and software, as well as development, production, purchasing and controlling.

Ulbrich's role as VW brand's technology boss will now be headed by Kai Gruenitz, who moves to the role from his current job as head of development at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, where he was responsible, among other things, for the development of the ID Buzz full-electric minivan.

Ulbrich and Gruenitz will cooperate and they will involve engineers from VW's traditional development department unit in projects such as battery cells, the SSP electric platform, and digitalization, including autonomous driving functions, as well as further complex projects that are on the horizon.

The two managers will move into neighboring offices, according to the report in the German business daily Handelsblatt.

Ulbrich will have his work cut out because Cariad’s decision-making structure has been criticized as ineffective, its budgets have ballooned, and the launches of key Porsche, Audi and Bentley models may be delayed because advanced software functions are not ready.