(TIME) -- Wolfgang Bernhard says he "wanted to learn the business hands on, rather than be a remote-control, distant manager." So when he was sent by Daimler-Chrysler executives in Germany to help steer their struggling Chrysler unit in Detroit, Bernhard worked three days a month on the company's factory floor. Bernhard's innovations paid off: the company was the only U.S. carmaker to pick up market share this year. But when Bernhard opposed giving the troubled Mitsubishi unit an injection of $2 billion, he found himself without a job. Volkswagen quickly offered Bernhard a high-powered encore: as chairman of the company's VW brand. That will effectively make him No. 2 at Europe's biggest automaker when he settles into the new job over the next 12 months. Volkswagen, which is projected to lose $1.2 billion in the U.S. this year because of a falling dollar and a lack of exciting new models, badly needs a boost. For the outspoken Bernhard, 44, cutting costs won't be easy. VW last month agreed to guarantee jobs for 103,000 German employees. But Bernhard is not afraid to make a splash. Executives in Detroit still talk about his dramatic entrance at an auto show last year riding a Tomahawk, a one-of-a-kind four-wheeled motorcycle. Now all eyes are on his moves at VW, where he will officially join the management board in February. By Charles P. Wallace/Berlin. With reporting by Joseph Szczesny/Detroit