Volkswagen announces Matthias Müller as new chief executive

It added that Volkswagen’s regional head for the U.S. market, Michael Horn, would keep his post despite the emissions test scandal.

Last week, the board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that Volkswagen had installed defeat device software in diesel cars from 2009 through 2015.

Mueller, the head of VW’s Porsche sports-car division, had been widely expected to be Winterkorn’s replacement.

The supervisory board said it would announce Winterkorn’s successor at a board meeting later on Friday.

Matthias Mueller, the new chief executive officer of Volkswagen AG (VW), reacts during a news conference in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Friday, September 25, 2015.

He said a number of employees had been put on leave until the details of the emissions cheating were cleared up.

In a two-page letter that begins “Dear Manufacturer”, the California Air Resources Board said it is immediately implementing new testing protocols for tailpipe emissions.

“We’re not going to tell them what these tests are, they don’t need to know”.

Since the EPA plans to test older cars that are no longer available from the manufacturers, the agency said it will borrow cars from individuals as well as businesses, such are rental auto companies, which own the vehicles it wants to test. Volkswagen has since fessed up that the issue affects 11 million vehicles worldwide. We will now have even stricter compliance. The software activates emissions controls during testing, but deactivates during everyday road use.

It stressed that only cars created to meet Eur05 emission standards were affected and not the Eur06 engines.

A Volkswagen statement said a few diesel models and model years – such as the sixth-generation Golf, seventh-generation Passat and first-generation Tiguan – are equipped exclusively with the EA 189 engines in which it says there are “discrepancies”. VW faces a criminal investigation by the US Justice Department, and a possible House subcommittee hearing.

Mr Mueller’s appointment came as Germany’s transport minister announced VW had manipulated test results for about 2.8 million vehicles in the country – pointing to cheating on a bigger scale than previously thought.