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 Ferdinand Piech, who has spent almost 22 years at the helm of VW,
nine as CEO, said he has "distanced" himself from Winterkorn, Der
Spiegel reported on Friday, exposing unusual dissent between VW's
two top leaders.
Piech's remark is viewed by analysts as undermining the CEO's
prospects of renewing his contract, due to expire on Dec. 31, 2016.
Winterkorn, who in his eight-year reign has overseen VW's
transformation from a struggling German group saddled with high
labor costs into one of the world's most successful automotive
companies, will not run away from his job and feels emboldened by
support from strong allies, two sources at Wolfsburg-based VW told
Reuters on Saturday.
A spokesman for Volkswagen declined to comment on the report.
Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported earlier on
Saturday that Winterkorn would not allow himself to be edged out of
VW, citing unnamed sources at the carmaker who referred to his
successful track record as CEO.
Under Winterkorn's watch, VW has expanded from eight to twelve
brands, more than doubled the number of production plants to over
100 and boosted sales 64 percent to a record 10.1 million vehicles
last year.
The state of Lower Saxony, where VW is based and which owns a fifth
of VW's voting shares, as well as the carmaker's labor leaders who
represent half the 20 members on VW's supervisory board on Friday
came out backing Winterkorn.
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VW's chairman has a track record of undermining his own executives.
In a Wall St Journal interview published in March 2006, Piech,
already chairman of the supervisory board at the time, said it was
an "open issue" whether the contract of then-CEO Bernd
Pischetsrieder would be extended because of opposition from labor
representatives.
In November 2006, VW announced that Pischetsrieder had agreed to
resign, and in 2007 it installed Winterkorn, then a close ally of
Piech and head of VW's Audi division.
In 2009, Piech publicly damaged the reputation of Porsche CEO
Wendelin Wiedeking and chief financial officer Holger Haerter. Both
executives quit within two months.
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Madeline Chambers and
Rosalind Russell)
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