Andreas Renschler.  Photo courtesy Scania.

Andreas Renschler. Photo courtesy Scania.

Andreas Renschler, the former head of commercial trucks for Daimler who went to work heading up Volkswagen's commercial truck operations earlier this year, has been appointed as the new chairman of the board of Scania. The Swedish truck and bus manufacturer is majority owned by Volkswagen.

A member of the board of management of Volkswagen AG, Renschler earlier this year took over as head of Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH, the holding company that coordinates the operations in the group’s commercial vehicles companies.

The news comes just days after published reports indicate that German truck maker MAN, majority owned by Volkswagen, will cut 1,800 jobs at its main commercial vehicles division. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company will save about 850 million euros ($951 million) by realigning operations at its German plants in Munich and Salzgitter and plants in Austria and Poland.

The revamp is part of a broader restructuring within Volkswagen, which is integrating the trucks businesses MAN and Sweden’s Scania AB to create a commercial vehicles unit under Renschler's leadership.

The goal for Volkswagen is to combine Scania and MAN with VW's commercial vehicles operations in order to better compete in global markets against rivals Volvo and Daimler. There's speculation that at some point that will mean entering the North American market in some way, as well.

Originally posted on Automotive Fleet

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