Germany - Volkswagen has appointed Alexander Hitzinger as the new member of the board of management for technical development at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. He will take charge of establishing and managing VW's Centre for autonomous driving and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS).

"In Alexander Hitzinger we have recruited a renowned expert as Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles," commented Thomas Sedran, chairman of the brand board of management of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. "Within our new brand strategy, he will be implementing our model campaign and forcefully promoting the expansion of our competencies in the fields of electric propulsion, software development and autonomous driving."

Hitzinger was previously the senior director of hardware engineering at Apple, and has also held posts at Porsche, Red Bull Technology, World Rally Car and Toyota Motorsport.

Towards the end of 2018, VW revealed plans to change its production strategy in Europe. The plans include construction of a new multi-brand plant in Easter Europe to house production of the Skoda Karoq and SEAT Ateca. VW is also readying its Emden and Hannover plants for the production of electric vehicles.