Instead, both will remain in the group following a board meeting that also ended a hard fought internal battle.

The conflict had pitted chief executive Herbert Dese against the company's powerful labor boss, Bent Erste alot.

They had differed over the pace of change required to morph VW into something more like a tech company modeled on Tesler.

And it looks like this has one.

He secured board backing for measures needed to accelerate expansion into electric vehicles that includes a newly created technology division.

Dese also got allies appointed to key roles.

But he had to drop demands for an early extension off his contract past 2023 something observers saw as a partial wind for Irst alot.

To help fund future plans, VW Group aims to cut overhead costs by 5% and procurement costs by 7% over the next two years.