Axel Mees, head of Audi of America Inc., has been sacked following critical comments he made about the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan and former Volkswagen AG Chairman Ferdinand Piech.
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Mees recently told a press gathering in the US that the VW Phaeton was not selling because Volkswagen underestimated the weakness of the VW brand in the luxury market.
Further, he was widely reported to have stated that Piech “was an engineer and he wanted to prove that he can build great cars, and he didn’t look at the marketing aspect, the brand aspect.”
Automotive News reported that a spokesman for Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany, said that Mees was fired solely for the critical comments he made and not for slumping Audi sales in the United States.
Mees was responsible for the Audi brand in both the United States and Canada.
