Porsche to take majority stake in VW for £7bn

By Ben Whitworth Motor Industry 07 March 2008 11:26 Porsche is about to become the majority shareholder in Volkswagen. The sportscar maker has been given the green light to purchase further stock in VW, taking its share past the 50 percent mark to give it a controlling interest. As soon as various legal checks have been cleared, Porsche plans to purchase a further 20 percent of VW stock – it already owns 31 percent - at an estimated cost of around £7 billion.

Porsche chief Wendelin Wiedeking resigns

Porsche chairman Wendelin Wiedeking has bowed to mounting pressure in announcing that he will step down immediately. The resignation came Thursday, following a surprise meeting of the company's supervisory board at its Weissach R&D headquarters outside of Stuttgart, Germany, on Wednesday night. Wiedeking's announcement comes after months of tense and public infighting following Porsche's failed attempt to wrest control of Volkswagen, which left it with $12.7 billion in debt, and slowing sales in key markets such as North America.

CAR interviews Mazda design chief Ikuo Maeda (2010)

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 02 September 2010 13:30 CAR has been out to Italy to see the world premier of the new Mazda Shinari concept car. It's the car that ushers in chief designer Ikuo Maeda's new Kodo design mantra, a sharper, faster stylistic treatment that will take over from Laurens van den Acker's Nagare vision. Maeda is the first Japanese design boss for a generation – it seems that Mazda has looked within after a series of European creative brains who each stayed for five years or less, arguably not long enough to see through any substantial aesthetic change.