invest in electric vehicles, as well as to return more control of the carmaker to descendants of its founder. The company said on Tuesday that it had negotiated a “framework agreement” with Porsche Automobil Holding, the investment vehicle of the descendants of the company’s founder Ferdinand Porsche. 51 per cent of Volkswagen’s voting shares are owned by the holding company, which said that it might consider acquiring stake in an independent Porsche car maker as part of the transaction. However, it would be subject to approval of Volkswagen’s supervisory board and could be vetoed by Volkswagen workers and the state of Lower Saxony, with the former having 10 seats on the 20-person board, and the latter having two seats.
Cash generated from the transaction is expected to be used to manage the carmaker’s costly transition to EVs, although it would also mean that the company’s share of Porsche’s profits would reduce. Both Volkswagen and Porsche have made a big push into electric vehicles over the recent years, with the latter doing well with its Taycan sports sedan, which sold more units than the combined sales of Tesla’s Model S and Model X in 2021. Meanwhile, mixed results have been reported by Volkswagen and its luxury brand Audi in the EV segment. The ID.3 and ID.4 have proven to a success so far, although the Audi e-tron SUV has lagged when compared with similar models from Tesla and other carmakers.
