Former Continental Mgr To Head VW Electric Drives

FRANKFURT (AP) — German carmaker Volkswagen AG's supervisory board said Wednesday that Karl-Thomas Neumann, the former chief executive of German tire and car parts maker Continental AG, will head the automaker's electric drives division starting December 1.

Neumann, 48, will report to VW's CEO, Martin Winterkorn. Neumann previously held positions at various Volkswagen electronics departments from 1999 until 2004 before leaving for Continental.

Neumann left Continental in August in the wake of the takeover of that company by another family owned German car parts company called Schaeffler Group KG.

Volkswagen's supervisory board was also to discuss a possible investment in bankrupt German contract auto maker Karmann, which once made the classic VW Karmann Ghia.

The supervisory board was also to discuss the further integration of Porsche into the VW group. VW, based in Wolfsburg, said in late October that it was taking the first initial step into the Stuttgart-based sportscar builder Porsche with a 49.9 percent stake of its shares for some euro3.9 billion.

The merger of VW and Porsche was initially announced in May.

Shares of VW were 2.25 percent higher at euro104.30 ($156.45) in late Frankfurt trading.

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