BMW chief’s future in doubt over tackling shift to e-vehicles

Bloomberg

BMW AG Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger’s job is on the line over concerns he’s not aggressive enough in steering the luxury carmaker’s titanic shift towards electric and autonomous vehicles, people familiar with the matter said.
Some supervisory board members are questioning whether he’s the right choice to lead the company and will discuss the CEO’s second-term prospects in the coming weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential deliberations. Krue-ger’s current tenure ends next May, with an announcement on his future due in June or July. The shares rose as much as
0.8 percent in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
BMW, like other carmakers, is making a costly transition to electric cars and new business models and is confronting deep-pocketed tech competitors encroaching with mobility trends like ride hailing. After leading the luxury competition for a decade, BMW’s momentum petered out in 2016 and the carmaker has since struggled to regain the top spot with cautious model redesigns. Since last year, weaker global markets and trade tensions have shrunk profits.
Any new CEO will be chosen from inside the Munich-based carmaker, and production head Oliver Zipse, 55, is considered a possible successor, one of the people said.