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Article: Project leader for a single vehicle, Werner Wilhelm.
- Article from:
- Automotive News Europe
- Article date:
- August 26, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Phaeton project leader, Volkswagen
Werner Wilhelm, a 45-year-old former Karmann and Audi development engineer, had never worked in Wolfsburg when he was named project leader for Volkswagen's Phaeton luxury sedan in 1997.
He was given a clean sheet of paper and lots of freedom from VW's head of development at the time, Martin Winterkorn. But there was little know-how for developing luxury cars at VW. The company had never done anything higher than the Passat.
Wilhelm had to recruit his team in-house and then motivate the technical staff and VW's suppliers to achieve new standards. He worked out a systematic plan, but found many who opposed him - ...