He will be supported by two regional contract hire and leasing managers, Melanie Miles and Peter Gallier, who will have day-to-day responsibility for developing closer relationships with the leasing companies.

The new team also includes Kevin Eastwood, fleet aftersales manager, who will assume responsibility for all Volkswagen’s Fleet Aftersales programmes, including Fleet Package Pricing. Mr Eastwood has worked within the fleet team for 12 years and will lead two account executives.

Also reporting to Mr Hummel will be two direct sales performance managers, Jon Richardson and Mike Peach, who have been appointed to ensure that Volkswagen maintains a strong network of dedicated Fleet Dealers in the right locations, with the right people and infrastructure.

Vince Kinner commented: 'I am excited to have completed the team restructure as it means we can now confidently go forward with a clear strategy to increase our share of the true fleet market, focus on the contract hire and leasing market and continue to offer fleet managers and drivers the quality of products and services for which the Volkswagen name stands.’

Ed Hummel joined Volkswagen from Ford in 2004 and has worked in Operations, Sales Planning and most recently as regional fleet sales manager covering the South.

Taking over from Mr Hummel in this role will be Andy Bateman, who joins the Fleet Services Team from the Volkswagen Operations department.