VW to fire top executives at software unit Cariad, source says

By Jan Schwartz

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Carmaker Volkswagen is set to dismiss all but one of the executive board members at its software division Cariad next week to try to resolve development problems, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

The unit - set up under former VW group CEO Herbert Diess -has exceeded its budget and failed to meet goals, contributing to Diess' departure and replacement by Oliver Blume last September.

Cariad's supervisory board is expected to sign off on the dismissals in a meeting next week, the source said on Saturday, adding that only the unit's head of personnel, Rainer Zugehör, might stay on.

A VW spokesperson said the German company was analysing Cariad and its projects.

A number of decisions have been made, but no decisions on personnel, the spokesperson said, adding that Cariad and vehicle software development remained integral to Volkswagen's group strategy.

The problems at Cariad have delayed work on important new vehicle models Porsche e-Macan and Audi Q6 e-tron.

The planned launch of company-wide structural car software, initially designed to enable the fourth of five levels of autonomous driving from 2026, has been postponed by two years.

Business Insider first reported the planned dismissals.

(Reporting by Jan Schwartz in Hamburg; Writing by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Hans Seidenstuecker and Barbara Lewis)