He was made CEO for the electric car at Audi: Who is Gernot Döllner?

Wanting to accelerate the transition to the electric vehicle, Volkswagen appointed Gernot Döllner to replace Markus Duesmann, CEO of its own Audi. Döllner, one of Volkswagen's leading strategists, will take up his new role on September 1. Audi is still a profitable company, but it is struggling to switch to electric and compete with Chinese manufacturers.

Outgoing CEO Duesmann was brought in from BMW three years ago in the hopes of boosting and renewing sales of the brand's electric models.

Audi, which prioritized producing higher quality vehicles over more affordable cars during the period of supply chain problems due to the coronavirus pandemic, increased its revenues by 40 percent to 7.6 billion euros in 2022.

Audi is currently working on the latest generation of internal combustion engine models and plans to produce only electric vehicles from 2026. The brand is expected to add 10 new electric models to its product range.

Audi is Volkswagen's second most important luxury vehicle brand after Porsche. Although Porsche successfully entered the electric vehicle market, Audi's main strength continued to be internal combustion engine vehicles.

Oliver Blume, who became CEO of Volkswagen Group in September last year, had worked with the new CEO of Audi Döllner for a long time, while he was a senior manager at Porsche. Döllner has been with Volkswagen since 1993.

He served as president of Porsche's four-door Panamera sedan series, which he helped develop.

Döllner's main focus will be advancing talks to open a factory in North America. Audi's main competitors, BMW and Mercedes, both have production facilities in the USA. Audi's SUVs are popular in the US, and the company plans to develop electrified versions of several of its flagship models.

Audi's internal combustion engine vehicles remain popular in China, but for the brand to compete with popular local manufacturers like BYD and Chery, the company needs to ramp up its electric vehicle production.