Winfried Vahland, now chief executive of Czech division Skoda, will leave after more than 25 years at Europe’s biggest carmaker, Skoda said on Wednesday, confirming what sources close to the matter had earlier told Reuters.
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Volkswagen’s newly appointed head of North America is leaving the company less than three weeks after he was assigned to that position, injecting a new measure of instability as the company navigates an emissions scandal.
Still, the fact Vahland is leaving is a huge blow to Volkswagen, which is facing a huge PR crisis for using illegal software in a few of its diesel cars to cheat emissions testing.
“This decision is expressly not connected to the current events around the diesel topic”, the statement said.
“Vahland was a good manager”, said London-based Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst.
Vahland’s swift appointment as head of the new North America region on September 25 was billed as critical to creating a cohesive strategy for Volkswagen in one of the company’s few weak spots.
While VW’s stock has so far lost a quarter of its market value, the firm is also facing the prospect of massive fines and compensation claims running into billions of euros.
The scandal has shattered trust in the company and rocked both the global vehicle industry and the German economy.
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Vahland will not be taking the N.A. role which would have given him the responsibility of overseeing the US, Canadian and Mexican markets.
