Porsche CEO will take charge at VW

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, certain Volkswagen diesel-powered vehicles are equipped with software that activates emissions control systems only when the cars are going through pollution tests.

The EPA will also be working closely with Environment Canada, which has an “excellent laboratory”, to co-ordinate widespread testing around the Volkswagen emissions, EPA officials said in a conference call on Friday.

Mueller, 62, has been widely tipped to succeed Martin Winterkorn, who quit on Wednesday, when the German carmaker’s supervisory board meets on Friday.

The interim chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, Berthold Huber, expressed the urgency for Mueller to fulfill his responsibility in the new position “with full energy”.

The software, discovered in more than 480,000 Volkswagen vehicles, tricked emissions test results to hide the fact that the cars were releasing massive amounts of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere that was 40 times over the allowable levels. It said that “the BMW Group does not manipulate or rig any emissions tests”. VW has already confirmed that 11 million of its cars worldwide could be part of the emission-cheating scheme.

German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Thursday Volkswagen had also cheated tests in Europe, where its sales are much higher, and yesterday put the number of affected vehicles in Germany at 2.8m.

Mueller made his name as product manager for Audi’s successful A3 model in the 1990s and then worked as VW’s head product strategist until 2010 when he was asked to lead Porsche.

The US leadership at Volkswagen will also change, and Volkswagen hopes to strengthen its North America region, ABC News reports. When he resigned, Winterkorn denied he knew of any wrongdoing but said the company needed a fresh start.

In an interview with the BBC, Sasja Beslick from Nordea, one of Volkswagen’s biggest investors, said: “I think this is just a panic reaction from the board of the company”. The market value of the company has been losing billions of euros as well.