Around 2.8 million Volkswagen vehicles in Germany are fitted with devices that can cheat emissions tests, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt told parliament today.
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ING economist Carsten Brzeski said:
“Volkswagen has become a bigger downside risk for the German economy than the Greek debt crisis.”
It was also not clear whether the software would have led to VW cheating on emissions tests outside the U.S.as well.
“We take these allegations, and their potential implications for public health and air pollution in the United States, very seriously”, a department spokesman said.
That software is in 482,000 diesel Volkswagen and Audi cars in the US, VW says.
The agency said it is still working on a plan for recalling the affected Volkswagen and Audi vehicles.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged VW to act quickly to restore confidence as motor dealers and consumers seek more information about the scandal.
Mueller has a majority on the 20-member supervisory board, the source said.
According to latest reports, Volkswagen, the German auto giant, is engulfed in a major scandal.
Fallout from Volkswagen’s admitted trickery now includes possible criminal probes, class-action lawsuits and potentially massive fines.
VW’s supervisory board also announced that Skoda chief Winfried Vahland would head the company’s new North America business to cater for the U.S., Canadian and Mexican markets.
The interim chairman of the supervisor board of Volkswagen AG, Berthold Huber, in a statement called Mueller “a person of great strategic, entrepreneurial and social competence”.
A European environmental group issued a report earlier this month that suggested other manufacturers may be using technology that allow their diesel cars to appear cleaner in official tests than in normal road conditions. They are among VW’s highest-ranking engineers.
The scandal has sent shockwaves through the vehicle market, with manufacturers fearing a drop in demand for diesel cars and tougher regulations and customers worrying about the performance and re-sale value of their cars.
So far, no other carmaker has been found to have used the same so-called “defeat devices” employed by Volkswagen.
VW has already confirmed that all of its cars sold with EU6 compliant engines have been legally certified.
Winterkorn, the outgoing chief of VW, headed the company for eight long years and oversaw the company tripling its profits and swelling up its sales to double.
In Britain, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said new checks would be carried out across the automobile industry to ensure that the “unacceptable actions” at Volkswagen were not repeated. The company later announced that it would shrink its management board and get rid of the position of production chief.
Mr Winterkorn said VW needed a “fresh start” and his resignation was “clearing the way” for that to happen.
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Volkswagen faces a huge challenge to stabilize the company.
