Volkswagen Shakes Up U.S. Leadership Again After Steep Sales Declines
Automaker’s North American chief executive is leaving the company after less than two years in role; veteran executive Marco Schubert to take over
- Volkswagen named veteran executive Marco Schubert to lead its North American business starting in October, succeeding Kjell Gruner.
- The leadership change comes as President Trump’s tariff and electric-vehicle policies collide with the automaker’s plans for the U.S. market.
- Volkswagen estimates the annual hit to its business from Trump’s trade policies at the equivalent of $5.8 billion.
Volkswagen VOW3 0.49%increase; green up pointing triangle wants to make a fresh start in the U.S.—again.
The German automaker is shaking up its North American leadership for the second time in less than two years after President Trump’s tariff and electric-vehicle policies collided with the company’s plans for the large, lucrative U.S. market.
Volkswagen said Wednesday that veteran company executive Marco Schubert would take responsibility for its business in North America starting in October. Current boss Kjell Gruner, who joined Volkswagen in December 2024 after a stint at electric-vehicle startup Rivian, is leaving the company, it said.
The management change marks the latest attempt by the world’s second-largest carmaker to revive its underpowered American business, as it continues to struggle in other parts of the world. Volkswagen’s once-lucrative business in China has fallen prey to local competitors. In Europe, it is cutting tens of thousands of jobs and closing or repurposing factories.
In a sign of the company’s determination to fix its problems in North America, Schubert, unlike his predecessor, will report directly to Chief Executive Oliver Blume.
“We will intensify our commitment in the most important growth market for the Volkswagen Group,” Blume said in a statement.
The U.S.—with about 16 million total annual vehicle sales and a large potential for profit—has eluded Volkswagen for decades.
Sales of its namesake brand peaked in 1970, the heyday of the Beetle and the Bus, before it was overtaken by Japanese rivals that proved better at adapting to evolving American tastes. While the company has recovered some ground this century, particularly with its luxury brands Audi and Porsche, its group market share in North America hovers around 4%, far below its dominant position in other markets.
The past 18 months have been particularly tough. With just one small U.S. factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., Volkswagen imports most of the vehicles it sells in the U.S., making it one of the automakers worst affected by Trump’s trade policies. The company estimates the annual hit to its business at the equivalent of $5.8 billion.
Volkswagen’s group sales in the U.S. fell by around 14% last year, and another 7% in the first half of 2026 compared to the prior-year period.
“Our cars are becoming more expensive and therefore increasingly difficult to sell, not because they have become inferior but because the rules of the game have changed,” Blume said in a Q&A published on the company intranet last month.
For successive Volkswagen CEOs, modest U.S. sales have long signaled a growth opportunity waiting to be grasped—starting with wildly ambitious targets.
Martin Winterkorn, who ran the company from 2007 to 2015, fixed a goal of selling 800,000 vehicles in the U.S. The plan created pressure that the company has acknowledged contributed to its diesel-cheating scandal.
His successor Herbert Diess, an avowed fan of Elon Musk, pinned his hopes on redemption through EVs to hit a 10% U.S. market-share goal. His signature products included the U.S.-made ID.4 and the imported ID.Buzz, electric vehicles that struggled to find traction even before Trump withdrew Biden-era subsidies.
While past regimes at Volkswagen prioritized selling similar cars all over the world—often ones ill-suited to American tastes—Blume is prioritizing lineups tailored to different regions.
He has poured funds into Scout Motors, a project begun under Diess to revive a historic sport-utility-vehicle brand as an all-American EV startup. In the Trump era, the project has pivoted to extended-range EVs, a kind of hybrid that includes a small internal combustion engine alongside a big battery.
He is also focused on technology partnerships. Under Blume’s leadership, Volkswagen has committed billions of dollars to Rivian in exchange for access to the U.S. company’s cutting-edge vehicle electronics and software.
Tariffs have brought fresh urgency to the question of localizing production in America. In Chattanooga, Volkswagen only makes its Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs. A Scout factory under construction in South Carolina isn’t set to deliver vehicles before 2028.
In April, the company ended U.S. production of the ID.4. It said at the time it was exploring options to bring a new, high-volume vehicle to Chattanooga that would be focused squarely on American customer needs. It declined to give further details.
Tariffs also revived the old idea of a U.S. Audi factory, which was raised repeatedly by Winterkorn in the gangbuster years before dieselgate. With profit under pressure, though, a plan hasn’t come together yet.
The company’s appointment of Schubert, an Audi veteran, to its top U.S. job could make an American factory dedicated to the luxury brand more likely, said independent analyst Jürgen Pieper.
Last month Audi launched its first full-size SUV in New York, the Q9, a model it said was “inspired” by and designed for the American market, though it was largely engineered in Germany and will be made in Slovakia.
A broader, long-awaited U.S. strategy for the Volkswagen group has yet to emerge. This year, Blume has put his energies into a second major restructuring plan that could bring the total number of jobs cut on his watch up to 100,000.
He has also retired the 10% U.S. market-share ambition inherited from Diess.
“Of course, we’re currently feeling pressure from trade-policy issues,” Blume told reporters in March.