NOVEMBER 24, 2001

Paefgen gets Volkswagen motorsport role

VOLKSWAGEN has confirmed a major reorganization of its brands and its management. This will result in the formation of a new sporting division which will as anticipated include Audi, Seat and Lamborghini. The company's four other brands Volkswagen, Skoda, Bentley and Bugatti will be moved away from sporting activities.

The current boss of Audi Franz-Josef Paefgen has been made chairman of Bentley Motor Cars, VW's luxury division but will also be in charge of the group's research and motorsport activities. The Audi group will be run by Martin Winterkorn, who is currently in charge of the group's product development. The company did not give details of planned investments but announced that it is going to invest $24bn in the development of new products in the course of the next five years plus another $9bn on other investments. Some of this money is expected to go into major new sporting programs to build up the company's new brand images.