Volkswagen names Mueller as CEO amid emissions scandal

Matthias Mueller has officially been named the new CEO of the Volkswagen Group effective immediately the German automaker announced on Friday.

Winterkorn said he accepted responsibility for the scandal, which was uncovered last Friday by US federal environmental officials.

The company has yet to announce which cars and construction years are affected, and whether they will have to be refitted.

“Today we are putting vehicle manufacturers on notice that our testing is going to include additional evaluation and tests created to look for potential defeat devices”, said Christopher Grundler, director of the EPA Office of Transportation & Air Quality.

Mueller’s appointment comes after a supervisory board meeting of the company held in Berlin earlier yesterday.

Mueller, Rupert Stadler, who runs VW’s Audi brand, and VW brand head Herbert Diess had been seen as the front-runners to replace Winterkorn as VW hastily sought a successor.

Mr Dobrindt said he had been told vehicles with 1.6 and 2.0 litre diesel engines are “affected by the manipulations that are being talked about”. It has said a few 11 million cars worldwide have the software. On the agenda will be choosing a replacement for chief executive Martin Winterkorn, who resigned on Wednesday, reports BBC.

Authorities will continue working with Volkswagen to determine which cars exactly are involved.

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”. Shares of Volkswagen stock dropped sharply on Monday on news of the company’s problems.

Germany, Italy and France are among the countries known to be investigating, and the commission says their probes would include carmakers beyond VW.

Mueller, a former head product strategist, is also a management board member of Porsche SE (PSHG_p.DE), and so close to the Piech-Porsche family that controls Volkswagen.