Decision To Rig VW Emissions Were Made Before Winterkorn Became CEO

Winterkorn, 68, was Volkswagen (VLKAY) CEO for eight years.

Volkswagen ornaments sit in a box in a scrap yard in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, September 23, 2015.

Volkswagen’s global CEO, Martin Winterkorn, resigned on Wednesday amid intense pressure over the automaker’s admission that it rigged 11 million diesel cars with manipulative software created to trick regulators into believing the cars were compliant with emissions standards. Senior Volkswagen directors said more heads could roll in the next few days.

The scandal resulted in a huge fall of Volkswagen’s shares on the stock market with a drop of over 10% since last week.

The scandal has spread, with Germany’s transport minister saying on Thursday the company had also cheated tests in Europe – where its sales are much higher than in the United States – and regulators and prosecutors across the world investigating.

Volkswagen’s USA chief is expected to leave the company after an emissions scandal erupted, according to multiple reports.

VW used illegal software to cheat on emissions testing of its diesel autos, limiting nitrogen oxide emissions only during testing.

The full 20-member board would meet on Friday morning to approve the appointment, which would then be made public in the early afternoon, it added.

“There must be people responsible for allowing the manipulation of emission levels to happen”, he told rbb-Inforadio on Thursday.

Dobrindt this week set up a commission of inquiry to look into the scandal.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it would test cars under actual driving conditions rather than just newly produced cars, after Volkswagen vehicles were shown to have software that overrides pollution controls once they are on the road.

Winterkorn, who had been CEO since 2007, said he took responsibility for the “irregularities” found by USA inspectors in VW’s diesel engines, but insisted he had personally done nothing wrong.

VW is under pressure to act decisively, with its shares plunging since the crisis broke and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urging it to quickly restore confidence in a company held up for generations as a paragon of German engineering prowess.

Plaintiffs allege that the device has caused the vehicles to lose value.

Thomas Rohrbach, spokesman for the Swiss federal office of roadways, said the move could potentially affect 180,000 vehicles that have 1.2-litre, 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre diesel engines.

At first, EPA and California Air Resources Board (CARB) had been contacted by the worldwide Council for Clean Transportation, an NGO that decided to test diesel engines and to see whether their actual emissions corresponded with their claims.