IN and extraordinary turn of events, Volkswagen’s powerhouse thought leader and kingmaker for the last 20 years or so,Dr. Ferdinand K Piëch, has resigned from the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG.

Also going is his wife Ms Ursula Piëch.

Ferdinand Piech (78), who was first ceo and then chairman of the Volkswagen Group, had criticised in public his suspected successor, current ceo Martin Winterkorn. It was a tactic Piech had used previously to unseat executives at the Group. But this time it backfired.

A statement by the board said: “The members of the Executive Committee have unanimously determined that in view of the background of the last weeks the mutual trust necessary ‎for successful cooperation no longer exists.”

It is expected that Winterkorn will now succeed Piech.

Piech’s initial criticism of Winterkorn centred around VW’s still unsuccessful attempts to make VW a real player in the US market.

Piech is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who conceived the revolutionary VW Beetle, and founded the sports car company that carries his name.