Bernhard Maier,60, CEO of Volkswagen Group’s Skoda brand, will leave his post after nearly five years at the end of July ; his successor will be elected by the board in August, Skoda said last week.
VW Group CEO Herbert Diess, who is Skoda’s chairman, said in the release that Maier’s years at Skoda were among the most successful in the company’s 125-year history. “I would like to thank Bernhard Maier for this and almost two decades of particularly successful years, first at Porsche and then at Skoda,” he said
Skoda has boosted annual deliveries above 1 million in recent years but like other automakers it has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. Its vehicle sales fell 14 percent to 237,000 in the first quarter. Operating profit dropped by €100 million to €300 million.