Herbert Diess, Volkswagen’s C.E.O., is stepping down.

BERLIN — Herbert Diess, who helped restore Volkswagen’s popularity after a pricey and embarrassing diesel emissions scandal and produce the corporate into the electrical age, resigned unexpectedly Friday after a tenure marked by friction with the carmaker’s highly effective labor union.

His abrupt resignation at a important juncture for Volkswagen is bound to boost recent questions concerning the firm’s convoluted governance construction, an uneasy steadiness of energy amongst labor representatives, native authorities and descendants of Ferdinand Porsche, who oversaw development of the Beetle within the Thirties.

The large automaker stated Mr. Diess would go away on the finish of August, with out giving a purpose for his departure, which the supervisory board stated was by “mutual settlement.” He might be succeeded on Sept. 1 by Oliver Blume, the chief govt of Porsche, the corporate’s worthwhile sports activities automobile unit.

“Herbert Diess performed a key position in driving ahead the transformation of the corporate,” Hans Dieter Pötsch, chairman of the board, stated in a press release by which he thanked Mr. Diess for pushing the corporate’s transfer into electrical autos.

Hours earlier than the announcement late Friday afternoon in Germany, Mr. Diess, 63, posted a message on his social media channels thanking VW staff for his or her work within the first half of the 12 months and wishing them a great trip. He made no point out of his impending departure.

“After a extremely disturbing first half of 2022 many people are trying ahead to a well-deserved summer time break,” he stated.

Mr. Diess’s future at Volkswagen had been doubtful on a number of events throughout his 4 years as chief govt, a submit that predecessors sometimes held for a decade or longer. Final fall, he clashed with the corporate’s highly effective works council about his electrification technique and administration fashion.

In October 2015, a month after the corporate confessed to rigging diesel vehicles to hide illegally excessive emissions, Mr. Diess, then the pinnacle of the unit that makes Volkswagen model vehicles, presided over a gathering the place he and the opposite executives wrestled with methods to revive Volkswagen’s good title. They determined that one of the simplest ways to shake Volkswagen’s popularity as a cynical polluter can be by growing vehicles with no tailpipe emissions in any respect.

The choice gave Volkswagen a head begin over rivals like Toyota or Basic Motors in providing vehicles that had been designed from the bottom as much as run on batteries. Volkswagen sells extra electrical vehicles in Europe than Tesla, the all-electric automaker that not too long ago opened an meeting plant exterior Berlin.

However Mr. Diess’s outspoken admiration for Tesla and Elon Musk, its chief govt — which even led to rumors a number of years in the past that Volkswagen would merge with Tesla — unnerved some factions inside the firm.

And Volkswagen’s electrical fashions have been affected by software program issues that elevate questions on its skill to compete with Tesla. Mr. Diess was blamed for failing to get the software program issues below management.

The software program “merely had too many issues,” Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a longtime observer of the German auto trade, stated in an e-mail. “To this point solely Tesla has succeeded in growing its software program independently. All the opposite carmakers, together with VW, appear to have huge issues in making the transition to software-defined vehicles.”

Final 12 months, Mr. Diess set off a battle with labor leaders when he talked about that as much as 30,000 jobs might ultimately be lower as the corporate turned towards making extra electrical autos.

That prompted a committee inside the supervisory board to handle the tensions between the 2 sides. There was hypothesis that Mr. Diess’s job might be on the road, and lists of attainable successors circulated. Finally, in December, he received new backing from the board, however a few of this tasks had been stripped away.

Mr. Blume, Mr. Diess’s successor, is prone to proceed Volkswagen’s push into electrical autos. At Porsche, Mr. Blume oversaw improvement of the all-electric Taycan, which has been successful.

The holding firm for the Porsche and Piëch households, which owns a majority of the voting shares in Volkswagen, thanked Mr. Diess for his service but additionally lavished reward on Mr. Blume, saying he “enjoys our particular belief.”