Meanwhile prosecutors in Lower Saxony in Germany are said to be considering launching a preliminary investigation into Volkswagen employees.
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Mueller has a majority on the 20-member supervisory board, the source said. Beyond Mueller, they include Audi boss Rupert Stadler, 52; Herbert Diess, 56, a relative newcomer to the company who previously worked at BMW and became head of the VW brand in July; and Andreas Renschler, 57, a recent arrival from Daimler who heads the commercial vehicles division.
“Even if it does, the fact that VW will have a new CEO who will very likely push for more restructuring is great news”, he said.
Volkswagen faces a huge challenge to stabilize the company. Now Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging it to act quickly to restore confidence in the Volkswagen name.
“There will be further personnel consequences in the next days and we are calling for those consequences”, Volkswagen board member Olaf Lies told the Bavarian broadcasting network.
Audi’s Ulrich Hackenberg, Porsche’s Wolfgang Hatz and United States chief executive Michael Horn will be sacked, a source told the news agency.
But it seems that VW at a minimum will be liable for the premiums they charged over the comparable gasoline models range that ranged from $1,000 on Golfs with mid- and high-level trims to $6,855 on top-level Passat and Audi 6 models.
“But we not getting anything from Volkswagen, so we don’t have anything to pass on to them”.
Volkswagen shares tumbled nearly 20 percent Monday, a day after the company’s chief executive apologized for having “broken the trust” of its customers for evading US emissions regulations. As a result, at least 11 million cars manufactured by the company are expected to be emitting anywhere between five to 35 times the amount of harmful chemicals into the atmosphere under regular conditions than they do in the laboratory. The EPA’s random testing is conducted in a controlled environment.
When he resigned, Winterkorn denied he knew of any wrongdoing but said the company needed a fresh start.
“As CEO I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the supervisory board to agree on terminating my function as CEO”, he said.
After Winterkorn disclosed Wednesday that he had asked the board to terminate his role, company spokesman Claus-Peter Tiemann declined to comment on how much money the departing CEO stands to get.
She also said she wants to update France’s pollution control procedures to better detect problems such as the VW software that allowed engines to run cleaner during emissions tests.
Grundler said EPA has the money and staff to expand its emission testing.
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A Volkswagen diesel sits behind a security fence on a storage lot…
