Ferdinand Piëch

Ferdinand Karl Piëch (17 April 1937) is an Austrian automobile engineer and manager. He is a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, and son of Louise Piëch (the sister of Ferry Porsche). He has thirteen children from four women.

Piëch was the winner of the award of Car Executive of the Century in 1999.

Biography

Born in Vienna, Piëch graduated from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 1962, with a degree in mechanical engineering, having written a Master Thesis about the development of a Formula One (F1) engine. At the same time, Porsche was involved in F1 and developed an 8-cylinder for the Porsche 804.

From 1963 to 1971 he worked at Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany, on the development of the Porsche 906 and following models that led to the successful Porsche 917. In 1972 he moved to Audi at Audi in Ingolstadt, Germany. Starting from 1975 he was manager of technological engineering, being responsible for the concepts of the Audi 80 and Audi 100. In 1977 he also began the development of a car for the World Rally Championship, resulting in the four-wheel drive Audi Quattro. The engine used in the Quattro model was a turbocharged inline-5 cylinder unit.

Piëch held a small engineering company in the time between leaving Porsche AG and joining Audi, and while there he developed a 5 cylinder in-line diesel engine for Mercedes-Benz. He picked up the concept again after moving to Audi, because there was a market demand for engines with more than 4 cylinders. At the time, Audi (and the Audi-derived VW Passat/Santana model range) used logitudinally mounted inline engines and front wheel drive. More conservetive layouts with 6 cylinders were abolished because of engineering and production costs (v6-engine) and packaging requirements (straight 6 did not fit because front wheel drive required that it be mounted in front of the axis).

In 1993 Piëch moved to Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG), where he became Chairman and CEO, succeeding Dr. Carl Hahn. He retired from the Board of Management in 2002, but as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, he still serves in an advisory capacity. In 2000 he was named chairman of Scania AB. He retired from the management board in 2002 and succeeded as chairman by Bernd Pischetsrieder.

While head of Volkswagen Group, Piëch was known for his aggressive moves into other markets. He drove the Volkswagen and Audi brands upmarket with great success. Piëch also pursued other marques, successfully acquiring Lamborghini for Audi, and establishing Bugatti Automobiles SAS. His purchase of British Rolls-Royce and Bentley was more controversial. After successfully buying the Crewe, England carbuilding operation, VW was denied ownership of the Rolls-Royce name. Piëch later claimed that he only really wanted the Bentley brand, but at the time the loss of Rolls to rival BMW was widely seen as a major failure.

What was not a failure, however, was his effort to rescue Volkswagen in North America. Dr. Hahn's previous efforts to regain market share in the United States and Canada - which he had built up as the head of Volkswagen of America from 1958 to 1965 - were to no avail, but Piech helped reverse VW's fortunes by agreeing to the manufacture of the Volkswagen New Beetle, the introduction of which in 1998 gave Volkswagen of America a much needed momentum.

Engineering

At Porsche, Piëch triggered significant changes in the company's policy. For example, the position of drivers in race cars was moved from the left to the right, as this gives advantages on the predominantly clockwise race tracks. After making mainly small 2000 cc race cars that were supposed to be closely related to road cars, Porsche made a risky investment by unexpectedly building twenty-five 5000 cc Porsche 917, surprising the rule makers at the FIA. Even Ferrari had needed to sell his company to Fiat before making such a move. Always thinking big, Piëch started development of a 16-cylinder engine for the Can-Am series. It is probably no coincidence that his grandfather had developed a famous supercharged 16-cylinder engine for the Auto Union racing cars in the 1930s. Piëch was denied the chance to complete it, as a turbocharged version of the existing 12-cylinder was simpler, more powerful and very successful. Three decades later as CEO of VWAG, Piëch insisted on the very ambitious Bugatti Veyron, with a turbocharged W16-cylinder, and top speed. These figures are close to, or even higher than those of the Porsche 917, and most current racing cars. Piëch was also behind the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury saloon, which was intended as a rival to other German luxury cars, but the sales of the model have been disappointing.

Porsche ownership

Piëch owns a significant share of Porsche, roughly 13%. In order to prevent discussions among the many family members, a policy was established in early 1972 that no Porsche family member is allowed to be involved in the management of the company. Even company founder Ferry Porsche, Piëch's uncle, only held a seat on the supervisory board of Porsche after the company's legal form was changed from a limited partnership to a private legal company. This made Piëch move to Audi after the foundation of his engineering bureau.

References

External links

• Volkswagen boss denies slush fund knowledge