Elvira Tölkes brings 30 years of automotive industry experience to Volkswagen Passenger Cars’ Quality Assurance department

Elvira Tölkes brings 30 years of automotive industry experience to Volkswagen Passenger Cars’ Quality Assurance department

(IN BRIEF) Volkswagen Passenger Cars has announced that Elvira Tölkes will take over as the Head of Quality Assurance from May 1, 2023, reporting to CEO Thomas Schäfer. Tölkes has over 30 years of experience in product development, production, and quality assurance in the automotive industry and is joining Volkswagen Passenger Cars from Audi, where she recently led a digital transformation project. Her predecessor, Christiane Engel, will take up the post of Spokesperson of the Management Board and Managing Director of the Technology Division of Volkswagen Osnabrück. The Quality Assurance department at Volkswagen Passenger Cars oversees 28 production sites and is responsible for ensuring high product quality and customer satisfaction.

(PRESS RELEASE) WOLFSBURG, 27-Apr-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Volkswagen Group (ETR: VOW3), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of automobiles and commercial vehicles, announces that Elvira Tölkes will become the new Head of Quality Assurance at Volkswagen Passenger Cars, effective from May 1, 2023. Reporting directly to CEO Thomas Schäfer, Tölkes brings over 30 years of experience in product development, production, and quality assurance in the automotive industry. She joins Volkswagen Passenger Cars from Audi, where she recently led a digital transformation project in procurement and IT. Her predecessor, Christiane Engel, will assume the role of Spokesperson of the Management Board and Managing Director of the Technology Division of Volkswagen Osnabrück.

Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, says: “Christiane Engel has laid crucial foundations in the Quality Assurance of Volkswagen Passenger Cars for turning Volkswagen into a real ‘Love Brand’ that’s 100 percent focused on customers: She has contributed significantly to us once again achieving top quality in our products’ materials, processing, software and digital services. I would like to thank her for her work and her engagement, and at the same time wish Elvira Tölkes a warm welcome to the team as the new head of Quality Assurance. In her we have found an experienced expert with a proven track record. Her task will be to continue what Christiane Engel started and take the quality of our vehicles to the next level. Top quality in materials, processing, software and digital services plays a decisive role in our customers once again seeing us as a love brand. I wish Elvira Tölkes every success in this task.”

Tölkes has held various management positions in the Volkswagen Group since 2018, including leading a strategic digital transformation project in software update management and cyber security at Audi in 2020. Prior to that, she was Vice President Body Engineering, responsible for the development of exterior, interior, vehicle security, and thermal management of new Audi models.

Beginning her career at Opel in 1992 after graduating in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Tölkes assumed various high-responsibility management positions, including director of homologation, program management, overall vehicle validation and interior development, and vehicle security. She became head of the engine and component plant in Kaiserslautern in 2011, and of the Eisenach plant in 2014. Before joining the Volkswagen Group, Tölkes was Vice President of Quality at Opel.

With a team of over 1,200 employees, Volkswagen Passenger Cars’ Quality Assurance department oversees 28 production sites across all vehicle classes. Its goal is to provide excellent customer satisfaction in the long term, setting customer-relevant quality requirements along the entire customer journey in vehicle projects. Quality assurance also checks all vehicle functions and services, issues final approval for use in the market, and ensures Volkswagen’s high quality standards in all its products and services. The independent business unit is also responsible for continuously improving product quality using efficient troubleshooting processes, and for defining and monitoring factory processes and standards in all Volkswagen Passenger Cars plants through a global network.

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Alexandra Bakir
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Maleen Bösenberg
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SOURCE: Volkswagen AG