Volkswagen to invest US$31b between 2002 and 2006

Agence France-Presse Germany

Volkswagen, the leading car maker in Europe, plans to invest some 31 billion euros (US$27 billion) between 2002 and 2006, it announced on Friday.

The cash, approved by the car maker's supervisory board at a meeting here, would be invested mainly in expanding and updating VW's range of models, the car maker said in a statement.

Furthermore, VW said it would be carving up the its brands into two separate entities, one combining the "sporty" Audi, Seat and Lamborghini models and the other comprising the "classic" VW, Skoda, Bentley and Bugatti models.

The supervisory board also rubber-stamped a number of changes on its management board, including the departure of the head of its top-of-the-range Audi unit, Franz-Josef Paefgen.

From March 1, 2002, Martin Winterkorn would succeed Paefgen as head of Audi, while Paefgen would take over as head of Rolls Royce and Bentley Motor Cars, VW said.

There had been recurrent speculation in the German press that VW's new chairman, Bernd Pischetsrieder, who takes the steering wheel at the company on April 17, 2002, would boot out finance chief Bruno Adelt and marketing chief Robert Buechelhofer.

But Adelt and Buechelhofer would retain their current positions on VW's management board, said VW spokesman Stephan Gruehsem.

Among the other personnel changes, Audi board member Andreas Schleef would assume additional responsibility for VW's Spanish marque SEAT.