While group chief executive, Piech started the collection of luxury brands under the Volkswagen umbrella.
The project's backers include the family of Ernst Piech, part of the Porsche dynasty.
In particular, the role of Ferdinand Piech, chairman of Volkswagen's supervisory board, is muddying the waters.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Unstoppable Porsche unveils fastest car yet
Its previous chief executive, Ferdinand Piech , spent billions of dollars pushing VW up the income scale.
VW's boss, Ferdinand Piech, said he had enough luxury brands and was not interested in buying another.
Piech says Spowers' ideas "immediately resonated" when he first heard them, particularly the flexibility of his leasing model.
Piech is adamant that Porsche, per se, is not behind Riversimple, but doesn't rule out it getting involved in the future.
Mr Piech is also the grandchild of Ferdinand Porsche who founded the sports car maker and whose family still controls the firm.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Unstoppable Porsche unveils fastest car yet
But analysts are highly skeptical that the families, which include Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech , have or will go beyond that threshold anytime soon.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week, Mr Piech has acknowledged that he may not be powerful enough to save Mr Pischetsrieder's skin.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Unstoppable Porsche unveils fastest car yet
His actual powers are to be put to the test on 3 May, when the futures of both Mr Piech and Volkswagen Group chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder will be decided.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Unstoppable Porsche unveils fastest car yet
But analysts are highly skeptical that the families, which include Volkswagen (other-otc: VLKAF - news - people ) chairman Ferdinand Piech , have or will go beyond that threshold anytime soon.
The rapid expansion has raised concerns about whether Winterkorn and his boss, Supervisory Board Chairman Ferdinand Piech, have overindulged, amassing an industrial empire that is too complex to manage efficiently, especially in a fragile economy.
FORBES: VW Boss Tightens His Grip On The Wheel As Road To The Top Gets Harder
This is exactly the way Porsche, and presumably Mr Piech, want things to be, though they have met resistance from Volkswagen's other major stakeholder, the German state of Lower Saxony, which fears Mr Piech is too powerful.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Unstoppable Porsche unveils fastest car yet
More than a decade ago, VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, commissioned a vanity project to rival the pyramids: to resurrect the great French luxury and racing marque Bugatti, right down to Ettore Bugatti's l'orangerie in Molsheim, in Alsace, France, and build there the greatest sports car of all time, with no compromise.
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