Hans-Gerd Bode is head of press and PR for Volkswagen and is responsible for all world communications. He has been at Volkswagen for a number of years and has travelled the world extensively. We spoke at the International press launch of the new Passat CC - a four door Coupe with CC standing for ‘Comfort Coupe’.
He told me: “Originally the name was not going to be Passat but something completely different. The board decided that the name had to stay. The decision then was to call it Passat Coupe but when it was put to my colleagues in North America, they did not agree with the decision as they felt it would harm any future Coupe models. The board then had to decide this with heated discussions sometimes on what the new name should be. The CC was then decided. It is more of a compromise. Internally there are still some discussions as to whether it was the right decision as not everybody agrees with it”.
Hans went on to say: “The Passat CC will never be offered as a five seater, it was always going to be a four seater only. There will be 300,000 built for the world during its life cycle”.
Hans then told me that the Volkswagen Group were partners in the Beijing Olympics and were supplying 5,000 transportation vehicles. This is a very expensive exercise but is divided between the other group companies. He said: “There is a feeling within at the moment with the negative press about the Olympic Games and China that they need to keep an eye on the situation and have decided to keep any news from the group about the operation to a minimum as it could potentially harm the brands but I feel in the long term it will be a great success”.
Hans is shortly leaving Volkswagen to join Porsche as its Head of Communications; he sees it as a challenging job with one of his first events being the launch of the Porsche Panamera, the first four door saloon from the sports car company.
