Hot! Audi Quattro ex-CEO van Meel is the new CEO of BMW M!

[EnI]

It's official ... finally.


Franciscus van Meel assumes management of BMW M GmbH

• 23.09.2014

Franciscus van Meel, as of 1 January 2015 Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW M GmbH (09/2014).

Munich. Franciscus van Meel (48) will take over as Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW M GmbH from 1 January 2015. He is the successor to Dr. Friedrich Nitschke (59) who will be retiring at the end of the year.

Francisus van Meel, who will already be joining the BMW Group on 1 October, was last active as Managing Directory of quattro GmbH, a subsidiary of Audi AG. Since 1996 he has held various management positions in chassis development and the technical steering of vehicle projects at Audi AG before becoming Managing Director of quattro GmbH in 2012.

Dr. Friedrich Nitschke worked for the BMW Group for a total of 36 years. Since joining the company in 1978 he has held management positions in various company areas before taking over as director of development strategy, steering and testing. From 2007 to 2011 he headed vehicle development of the MINI brand. In 2011 he became Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW M GmbH. Under his leadership the category BMW M Performance Automobiles was created as well as the new generation of the BMW M3 and BMW M4 models developed.

Dr. Herbert Diess, Member of the Board of Management for Development: "The position of M GmbH on the market has never been better in the company's history and it continues to achieve sales record after sales record. Friedrich Nitschke has done outstanding work over the past years and has made a crucial contribution to the success of the company. The entire Board of Management of BMW AG would like to express its gratitude to him."

 

[EnI]

They have been talking to him since he left Audi Quattro GmbH ...

In May 2014 I wrote (in M5 thread):

Btw, BMW M GmbH is getting a new employee ... Audi's Quattro GmbH recently sacked chief Franciscus van Meel.

With AWD M5 coming, and additional AWD M SAVs / SACs ... and the new M Performance line by M GmbH (analog to Audi's S vs RS) van Meel will definitely be familiar & compatible with the new business & product strategy of M GmbH.

But even more important is this (I initially published that on the site that can't be mentioned here):

Mind the CEOs are executive officers = business managers, not technical / R&D directors.

CEO is there to EXECUTE business & product strategy decided by BMW AG Board of Directors, a strategy which had been greenlighted by BMW AG Supervisory Board.

So, a CEO coming form a rival company does not mean products of M GmbH will change (=become more Audi-like) because of that.

Van Meel is a great CEO, and BMW AG are very proud & happy to steal him from Audi (before anyone else could do it). Van Meel will definitely lead M GmbH as well as Nitschke have.

...

Regarding R8 ... Van Meel was very much in favor of e-tron version of R8, while the Audi's R&D boss & a majority of Director's Board were against it (at that time). There would be a significant differences in car architecture - depending on drivetrain being primarily ICE or (PH)EV - that's why that decision was so important.

So, therefore the new R8 is architecturally still an ICE car, and not an (PH)EV - like eg. the BMW i8.

A possible e-tron version of R8 will be just a car with ICE architecture - featuring electric drivetrain ... and not being a car with EV-specific architecture.

That was the main reason van Meel left Quattro GmbH.

Also ... with BMW i program (and especially i8) now alive & kicking some of the know-how & tech can be trickled down to M cars as well. And having van Meel on board (prior to Quattro GmbH CEO he was a head of Audi's electro mobility program), a man with similar & compatible views (he is a true advocate of electro mobility), will make this strategy come to live even more effective.

So ... I would say BMW AG plans with M cars are to give M cars some "BMW i magic dust" ... Or, to give some i car a bit more of an M character.

And therefore they wanted a CEO who totally supports electro mobility solutions.

 

[Rolf]

Wow talk about poaching the opposition!!!