MOTORING NEWS - Volkswagen has announced that Herbert Diess, the Wolfsburg-based manufacturer's brand chief, will succeed Matthias Mueller as CEO.

At the same time, the VW Group also announced a major restricting of its brands, dividing them up into six new business areas.

The group's brands include Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Skoda. They will be divided into three groups - volume, premium, and super premium.

Another business area will be dedicated to China while yet another will be dedicated to its truck and bus division.

Areas the VW Group will focus on include research and development, sales and production. VW hopes the new management system will streamline the company, quickening the decision-making process.

The Volkswagen Group's goal is to align the company and its brands with future needs, to safeguard its position among the leaders of the international automotive industry with innovation and profitability and to be instrumental in shaping future personal mobility with the strength of the group brands, said chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Pötsch, in a press statement.

Diess joined Volkswagen in 2015 after holding an executive position at BMW.

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