Dieselgate scandal leaves important marks on Volkswagen people. Many of those involved in the scandal are now emerging. Among egineers accused of hiding the truth and presenting their resignation, Audi announces the step down of a very important figure in its history.
It is Ulrich Hackenberg, who has reached a mutual agreement with the Supervisory Board of Audi AG to step down as Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development.
Matthias Müller, Volkswagen Group CEO, praised Hackenberg’s significant impact on the Technical Development divisions of the entire Volkswagen Group: “Above all, the modular toolkit system is inseparably connected with the name of Ulrich Hackenberg. He had that idea already in the early nineties at Audi. Today, the entire Group profits from it.”
After graduating in mechanical engineering at Aachen RWTH University, Ulrich Hackenberg was employed as an assistant at the Institute for Motor Transport from 1978 until 1985.
The adventure started exactly 30 years ago. Hackenberg moved to Audi in 1985, where he took over the position of Head of Concept Development in 1989 and later led the technical project management for the entire product range. That included the Audi 80, A2, A3, A4, A6, A8 and TT models as well as numerous concept studies and show cars, the technical conception of the modular toolkit strategy and the development of a simultaneous-engineering structure.
He was active in the Volkswagen Group from 1998 until 2002. There, he was head of the Body Development department and additionally responsible as of late 1998 for Concept Development.
From 2002 until January 2007, Hackenberg once again worked for Audi AG and was in charge of the Concept Development, Body Development, Electrics and Electronics departments. During that time, he developed the “modular longitudinal toolkit.”
