Troubled car maker Volkswagen which is caught in an emission cheating scandal announces Veteran head of Porsche division Matthias Mueller as new chief executive replacing Martin Winterkorn.
- Mueller will continue to act as chairman of Porsche AG until a successor has been found.
- Mueller who is also a member of Board of Management of Volkswagen AG will act as the CEO VW Group until the end of February 2020.
A total of 482,000 TDI cars sold in the U.S. since 2008 had the “defeat device” including Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models, as well as the Audi A3.
ABOUT VW EMISSION SCANDAL – DIESEL DUPE
German car maker Volkswagen AG was found to have used software designed to fraudulently pass US emissions tests for almost 500,000 of its diesel engine Volkswagen and Audi cars sold between 2009 and 2015. The company has admitted that it installed software on 11 million of its diesel cars worldwide which allowed them to pass America’s stringent NOx-emissions tests. Once the cars were out of the laboratory the software deactivated their emission controls, and they began to spew out fumes at up to 40 times the permitted level. This resulted in car models passing United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tests while in real-world driving emitting up to 35 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides (NOx).
- CEO Matthias Mueller blames small group of staff for emissions scandal and assures that the company will work to find a solution and gain back public confidence. Scandal was the result of unlawful behaviour of engineers and technicians involved in engine development.