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Will GM pick a German to run GM Europe?
It looks as though General Motors will soon be looking for a new executive to run GM Europe, which includes its troubled Opel unit.
The U.S. carmaker needs someone with credibility within Germany as well as within the car industry if it replaces GM Europe head Carl-Peter Forster.
There are a few German industry heavyweights about who could do the job.
How about former Continental CEO Manfred Wennemer, who knows a lot about tyres and auto parts? Or Porsche’s former boss and golden-boy Wendelin Wiedeking? Or Daimler’s Wolfgang Bernhardt, who recently took over running the Mercedes-Benz van unit?
All have the right credentials, although Wiederking may have too much baggage (and too much money after his pay-off from Porsche to want to do the job).
Bernhardt would be a good bet, but what would GM have to offer him to lure him away from his vans?
Should Volkswagen demand a Magna Carta?
Magna International seems to be taking seriously threats from Volkswagen to pull its business following the Canadian car parts maker’s Opel victory.
Magna’s co-CEO Donald Walker is saying that after talking to them, most of his other customers are happy that the car parts group – which along with Russian backer Sberbank is buying a 55 percent shareholding in GM’s Opel — is able to protect their technologies.
Apparently VW is still unconvinced, so Magna will “finalising the internal procedures” and will have more talks with the German carmaker.
Walker is also stressing that Magna is not looking to compete with its clients but is simply aiming to get a good return on its investment in Opel, reiterating that Magna will remain a parts company.
There seems little doubt that Magna can manage potential conflicts, after all it already builds cars for BMW, Chrysler and Mercedes as well as making parts for Toyota, Ford and VW.
But to say Magna won’t be competing with other carmakers once it starts building Opel cars is stretching the point. Why else would you buy Opel if it wasn’t to take market share from VW and others?
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The Wall
GM needs a German in charge of it’s Euro division, they need a bit of that insane engineering