Germany – Andreas Krüger will become head of Product Line Small, Stefan Gies will be head of Product Line Mid-/Fullsize and Friedrich Eichler will be head of Chassis Development. The appointments will be effective from September 1.
After joining VW at Wolfsburg in 1991, Krüger went on to take senior positions at Changchun in China and Curitiba in Brazil, plus the Emden and Mosel plants in Germany. He became head of Product Line Small in 2008 and was later head of Body Development. Krüger became head of the Pre-Series Center in 2012.
Krüger will replace Klaus-Gerhard Wolpert, who is retiring on October 1 after 33 years with the Volkswagen Group. He started his career with Porsche at Stuttgart, Germany, in 1984 and held various positions before finishing up as head of the Cayenne series from 1998. He moved to Volkswagen in 2010 as head of Group/Brand Products and took responsibility for Product Line Small in 2016.
Gies will take over from Elmar-Marius Licharz, who will be head of the new Digitalisation Finance Department at VW Group. Gies joined Audi in 2000 to support chassis development, after positions with Ford and RWTH University Aachen, the latter including leadership of the Institute of Automotive Engineering. In 2009, he became head of Chassis Development at VW.
Eichler began his career with VW in 1993 in engine development, then moved on to positions with Audi and Porsche. In 2007, he joined Mercedes AMG as head of Drivetrain but returned to VW in 2013 as head of Gasoline Engine Development. He became head of Powertrain Development in 2014.
