Porsche SE Ponders Exit for Patriarch Ferdinand Piech

Porsche Automobil Holdings SE, the investment company that controls Volkswagen AG, aims to push patriarch Ferdinand Piech off its supervisory board, sources tell Bloomberg News.

The 79-year-old Piech—grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who created the original VW Beetle—is credited with turning VW Group into an industrial powerhouse. Last year the company outsold Toyota Motor Corp. to become the world’s largest carmaker.

But as VW’s chairman, Piech also became embroiled two years ago in an unsuccessful power struggle with CEO Martin Winterkorn, his former protege. Piech resigned the chairmanship shortly after VW’s diesel emission cheating scandal erupted.

Piech’s demanding and autocratic management style frequently is blamed for creating a climate of fear that fostered the cheating. Piech denied knowing anything about the scandal prior to its discovery by U.S. regulators in September 2015.

But last year Piech claimed he discovered the cheating six months earlier and told the VW board about it. Investigators deemed his account “implausible,” and the board threatened legal action against Piech for suggesting a cover-up.

Bloomberg says the Porsche Holdings board is weighing a plan to coax both Piech and fellow patriarch Wolfgang Porsche, also in his 70s, off the board to make room for younger members of the two families. The holding company’s annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for May 30.