Ralf Kostrewa moves to Senior Project Management at VW

After almost 7 years as Head of Fleet Sales at Volkswagen Group, Ralf Kostrewa (pictured right) moved to the new position of Senior Project Management, to be replaced by Sven Kunath as Head of Fleet Sales. We asked him to look back and to look ahead.

How long have you been working at the fleet sales division of Volkswagen Group?

I started in May 2012 as Head of Fleet Sales at Volkswagen Group Fleet International, this was more or less a return to the roots as I had already been working s ago as international key account manager in this organisation for ten years. If we consider the role as Rent a Car Manager at Volkswagen passenger cars Europe as well I spent more than 50% of my life with Volkswagen in the Fleet business.
 
How do you look back on that period ? What were the biggest evolutions you have seen?

20 years ago a lot of companies started to think about the internationalisation of their fleets and started asking for corresponding offers. Having said that, only a few of them had the required cross-country steering infrastructure at this time. Meanwhile this mission is done in various shapes. And with regards to the last years a lot of new changes arrived like the combination of travel and fleet management in one role, CO₂ target management at the customers fleets, the consideration of new mobility concepts, challenges of e-mobility, etc. In other words, especially the last two years revealed that the fleet business is now in a deep transformation phase.

Who is your successor at International Fleet Sales?

Beginning 1 January 2019, Sven Kunath took over responsibility from me as Head of Group Fleet Sales International. Sven holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Constance and has several years' experience as an international business consultant before he joined Volkswagen AG in 2001. Within Volkswagen AG Sven has worked in different national and international sales positions and is well experienced in the fleet business. Besides other functions, from January 2011 until March 2015 he was responsible for the entire fleet, rental and direct sales for Volkswagen passenger cars in Germany before he left to his recent position as regional director for sales of Volkswagen passenger cars for the Western European markets.

What is your main goal in your new function?

CO₂ is key, we care about sustainable mobility and this contains also my new role of CO₂ management in the fleet business. This means I remain associated to the fleet business. 

Image: Sven Kunath (left), Head of Fleet Sales and Ralf Kostrewa (right), Senior Project Management, Volkswagen Group