Campaign group Friends of the Earth welcomed the United Kingdom investigation and called for the provision of ” all necessary resources” to carry out new tests “wholly independent of vehicle companies”.
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The sources said it would give initial findings from an internal investigation into who was responsible for programming some diesel cars to detect when they were being tested and alter the running of the engines to hide their true emissions.
Müller will be tasked with restoring the company’s battered reputation after an emissions test cheating scandal broke last week.
The Volkswagen Group owns automotive brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, and others.
BMW’s stock sank 5 percent Thursday after the German magazine Autobild reported that the company’s X3 xDrive polluted at more than 11 times the European standards, which are looser than USA rules.
The company will cover any costs involved, having already set aside €6.5bn (£4.7bn).
Light commercial vehicles made by Volkswagen appear to be affected by the scandal over software used to cheat U.S. emissions tests, according to Germany’s transport minister.
VW has admitted that 11 million vehicles worldwide were fitted with sophisticated software which conned testers in the U.S. into believing their vehicles met environmental standards. Even after its 2010 recall crisis Toyota became the world’s No 1 again because it fixed its manufacturing problems.
The EPA and the California Air Resources Board uncovered the defeat device software in the Volkswagen cars after independent analysis at West Virginia University raised questions about the cars’ emissions levels.
VW on Tuesday denied that Winterkorn will leave as chief executive this Friday, to be replaced by Matthias Müller, the chairman of its sister company Porsche.
Recommendations for new personnel will be presented at the upcoming meeting of the supervisory board this Friday.
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Volkswagen is embroiled in one of German industry’s largest ever industrial scandals after conceding there were discrepancies relating to 11m vehicles with Type EA 189 engines, which showed “noticeable deviation” between bench test results and actual road use.
