- Herbert Diess has been ousted as Volkswagen's chief executive three years before his contract ended.
- He had often clashed with the powerful council representing workers, per the Financial Times.
- Diess wanted VW to overtake Tesla as the world's largest electric car producer.
Volkswagen's chief executive Herbert Diess has been ousted after little more than four years in the role and three years before the end of his contract.
He was the architect of the German carmaker's multibillion-dollar push into electric vehicles and wanted to overtake Tesla as the world's number one electric car producer.
Diess will be replaced in September by Oliver Blume, the chief executive of Porsche, which is part of the VW Group.
The Financial Times reported that Diess had often clashed with the company's works council, which represents workers and accounts for half the seats on its board.
Daniela Cavallo, who leads the council, said it wanted to ensure that "job security and profitability remain equally important corporate goals in the coming years. Our focus as an employee organization is clear: all our colleagues must be involved. Today's decisions pay tribute to this."
Diess had privately said VW had an excess of about 30,000 staff, The FT reported.
Earlier this year, the group released the ID.Buzz, an electric version of its iconic Microbus and Insider reported that it could launch an electric pickup truck to rival Ford's F-150 Lightning and Chevrolet's Silverado EV in the US.
Elon Musk has acknowledged the company's achievements and told The FT in May that Volkswagen had made the most progress with EVs other than Tesla.
Last month Diess told workers at the company's Wolfsburg headquarters: "Elon must simultaneously ramp up two highly complex factories in Austin and Grünheide [near Berlin] — and expand production in Shanghai. That will cost him strength. We have to seize this opportunity and catch up quickly — by 2025 we can be in the lead."
A study by Bloomberg Intelligence expects VW to double production to more than 2 million battery-powered vehicles by 2024, overtaking Tesla, Insider reported last month.
Volkswagen aims to produce about 700,000 electric car this year, but is about half the number Tesla expects to make.
In Europe, however, the German company has about double Tesla's market share in EVs.
Hans Dieter Pötsch, the chairman of Volkswagen Group, said of Diess: "Not only did he steer the company through extremely turbulent waters, but he also implemented a fundamentally new strategy."
Blume, who will continue to run Porsche as well, joined VW in 1994 and held management roles at its Audi, SEAT and Volkswagen divisions before moving to Porsche. Diess is a rare outsider and joined from BMW in 2015.