Ferdinand Piech, ex-head of the Volkswagen Group has passed away     

The death of an 82-year old German automotive industry executive wouldn’t normally warrant more than a sentence or two in evo India, but Dr. Ferdinand Piech was no ordinary industry chairman. In fact, he could quite possibly have been the most evo man in the car industry. He spearheaded the Volkswagen Group into a global

Competitive Spirit

Ignore the shared platforms, drivetrains and components; the cross-brand family of models that nearly take badge engineering a step too far, and instead consider what Piech stood for. While those who head up rival manufacturers are predominately from a sales and marketing background, Piech was first and foremost an engineer fascinated with new technology and always looking for an advantage over a competitor.

Impressive CV

His product back catalogue is an embarrassment of riches, crammed with gems of the kind that any Chairman or CEO would be content to have just one of on their CV. How many of Piech’s rivals can claim to have built a Le Mans winner, brought the most aerodynamically efficient car of its time to market and made a wealth of pioneering technology available to the masses? Who else could set their engineers the task of building the fastest, most powerful production car of all time and tell them not to come back until it was done?

Ferdinand Piech was a motorsport buff

Early in his career Piech showed signs that settling for second best was never going to be an option. When he worked in Porsche’s motor sport department and wanted his Grandfather’s company to win Le Mans, he fought against using the company’s 2-litre flat-six production car engine and got the go ahead for a 4.5-litre flat-12 racing engine together with a chassis and body to put it in. And when the FIA inspectors came to check on progress of Porsche’s new sports car, instead of the usual two or three finished cars and the same number again in various states of build, Piech made sure all 25 required for homologation were built and lined up for inspection.

A switch to Audi saw Piech focus his attentions on winning-over BMW drivers by injecting performance and ground-breaking technology in to the sector. He used four-wheel drive to not only claim victory on the stages of the World Rally Championship, but to give the company’s less fashionable saloon cars a USP over their Bavarian rivals. While others in the sector were happy to play follow my leader, Piech always wanted to be the leader.

Piech integrated many brands under VW Group

It was Piech’s determination to innovate, lead, and push the VW Group’s brands to compete head-on with each other. Every brand he has added to the VW portfolio is stronger because of it. Before Audi took control of Lamborghini you couldn’t think of a more inappropriate owner – a German salon car manufacturer having control of an Italian supercar company just shouldn’t work. And yet the Gallardo was an evo India favourite from day one and the Huracan is working its way into our affections in a similar way. The Aventador is a supercar only Lamborghini could make: mad, bad and dangerous to know but utterly appealing.

Then Audi went and built a rival to the Gallardo and the VW Group offered us two brilliant mid-engined super cars at the same time, each benefiting from a combination of shared knowledge and the rivalry to build the better car.

Strong motorsport record

Let us also not forget that it was the sanctioning of a group SUV project by Piech that allowed Porsche to cash-in, produce the likes of the Carrera GT and ultimately make the return to Le Mans. And it is motorsport where Piech’s record is perhaps strongest. Fiercely resisting Formula 1, he has pushed the VW Group’s brands in multiple disciplines: one make racing, DTM, GT racing, the World Rally Championship and, of course Le Mans. Under Piech’s stewardship VW Group entries have won Le Mans 14 times from the last 15 races. And when Porsche returned there was no Audi withdrawal, instead both brands were actively encouraged to slug it out for victories. While other Groups keep their brands safely separated, under Piech’s stewardship it was very much a case of if you can’t beat an in-house rival how do you expect to beat an external one?