Klaus Zellmer will replace Håkan Samuelsson because the CEO of Volvo Cars, but he won’t step into the recent seat until October 1, 2027.
This is probably going attributable to a non-compete clause in his contract with Skoda, which he has led because the middle of 2022. During his time in charge, Skoda has turn out to be the one shining light within the otherwise troubled Volkswagen Group.
Its sales rebounded from a post-COVID low of 731,100 in 2022 to 1.05 million in 2025. Last 12 months Skoda’s operating profit margin was a really healthy 8.2 per cent. By the use of comparison, your entire margin for the Volkswagen Group was 4.6 per cent, and that is expected to fall to around one per cent this 12 months.
In response to Skoda, at the beginning of Mr Zellmer’s tenure the brand was in tenth place within the European sales race, but finished second throughout the first half of 2026. The one blot on his copybook is the brand’s departure from China, where sales collapsed from 300,000 per 12 months in 2018 to only 15,000 last 12 months.
Born in 1967, Mr Zellmer has a level in business administration, and one in all his first jobs within the industry was with the Institute for Automotive Economics on the Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences.
He spent most of his working life at Porsche, working his way as much as turn out to be the managing director of Porsche Germany after which from 2015 the CEO of Porsche North America.
In 2020 he moved to the Volkswagen brand to turn out to be its global boss for sales, marketing and aftersales. Two years later he was appointed as Skoda’s CEO.
Skoda confirmed Mr Zellmer’s immediate departure from the corporate, and thanked him for “his great commitment and his significant contribution to the continued development of the Skoda brand”. Holger Peters, Skoda’s chief financial officer, will turn out to be the brand’s interim CEO because the marque looks for a brand new chief executive.
It can be interesting to see if Volvo is in a position to negotiate an early end to Mr Zellmer’s non-compete clause. Regardless, the corporate is promising there can be a “seamless transition” from Mr Samuelsson, who was brought back for his second stint as CEO in April 2025 to supply “stability during a pivotal period for the corporate while preparing for a long-term successor”.
Eric Li, Volvo’s chairman, lauded Mr Zellmer’s “strong record of guiding organisations through transformation and changing market conditions”, and noted “his experience from each the high-end premium segment and high-volume brands, is a superb fit for Volvo Cars”.
In a prepared statement, Mr Zellmer said: “Few automotive brands have built such a powerful and lasting status for safety, consistently applying this core value across the mobility sector. I love Volvo Cars’ timeless, contemporary design language and the clarity of its brand identity.
“The corporate has a solid foundation and an experienced team, and I stay up for working with colleagues across Volvo Cars to construct on these strengths.”
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
