Automotive News Europe - September 2019 - 30

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

AWARDS

AWARD
MANUFACTING EXECUTIVE

Manfred Erlacher
* TITLE: Regensburg Plant Director
* COMPANY: BMW
* BASED: Regensburg, Germany
* AGE: 64
* NATIONALITY: German

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

AWARD
PROJECT LEADER INDIVIDUAL CAR

Guillaume Clerc

Erlacher took over BMW's factory in Regensburg, Germany, in early 2017. Prior
to that he led BMW's U.S. plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, overseeing a
massive expansion during his 38 months
there. He was in charge of BMW's factory in Leipzig, Germany, from 2009-2013.
He retired in 2019 after 35 years with
the German automaker.

REASON FOR WINNING
Under Erlacher's guidance, Regensburg
was named Europe's best plant, earning
a gold award from J.D. Power in its 2019
Initial Quality Study. Regensburg, which
assembles the X1, X2 and 4 series, had
just 18 defects per 100 models produced. In addition, in January the World
Economic Forum named Regensburg a
Lighthouse of the Fourth Industrial Revolution because of its pioneering role in
the digitalization of production.

* TITLE: Marketing Executive for Small

Car Product Planning

* COMPANY: Peugeot
* BASED: Paris, France
* AGE: 43
* NATIONALITY: French

AWARD
EV PROJECT LEADER

Thomas Ulbrich
* TITLE: Board Member for E-Mobility
* COMPANY: Volkswagen Brand

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Clerc joined PSA Group in 1998 after
graduating from the Marseille School of
Management. He started as a customer
relationship analyst at Citroen. In 2003
Clerc became a pricing analyst for the
brand. Clerc was named a product manager in 2006 for the Citroen and Peugeot
brands, working on the Citroen C-Elysee,
C3-XR and Peugeot 301, with an emphasis on China and Latin America. He
started his current position as a brand
manager for the P2 small car project at
Peugeot in 2013.

REASON FOR WINNING
Clerc oversaw development of the new
Peugeot 208, which is launching at the
end of this year. The 208, Peugeot's bestselling model, is based on PSA Group's
new CMP architecture, which was designed to accommodate electric and internal combustion drivetrains. The electric version will have a range of about 340
km and will be crucial in helping Peugeot
meet tougher EU emissions targets.

www.autonewseurope.com

* BASED: Wolfsburg, Germany
* AGE: 53
* NATIONALITY: German

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Trained as a car mechanic before studying engineering, Ulbrich has worked in
various roles at Volkswagen, including
heading a high-profile production project known as Auto 5000 in 2001. Later
he served as a senior executive at VW
Commercial Vehicles and the SAIC-VW
joint venture. In 2014 he became head
of production for the VW brand before
assuming responsibility for a newly created e-mobility division.

REASON FOR WINNING
Ulbrich is responsible for helping the VW
brand to build more than 1 million electric
vehicles a year by 2025. He aims to deliver the brand's first mass-market EV, the
ID3, to customers without any net new
greenhouse gas emissions starting with

renewable energy in production down to
sourcing carbon-neutral battery cells, as
well as off-setting the emissions that cannot be avoided. He is also in charge of a
massive VW Group initiative to ramp up
EVs based on the MEB architecture with
33 different vehicles scheduled to start
production through mid-2023.

SEPTEMBER 2019

http://www.autonewseurope.com

Automotive News Europe - September 2019

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