New Volkswagen North America chief Winfried Vahland out after three weeks

Vahland was recently appointed head of VW’s North American division as part of a restructuring plan pushed by the carmaker’s new CEO Matthias Müller.

October 14 Volkswagen’s designated North America chief Winfried Vahland will leave the VW group due to differences over the shape of the region’s operations, VW unit Skoda Auto said on Wednesday.

Volkswagen’s plans to rebuild trust in North America has hit an unexpected speed bump.

Differing views on the organization of the new group region have led to this decision; this decision is expressly not related to current events on the issue of diesel engines, according to a Škoda Auto press release.

Meanwhile, German magazine “Der Spiegel” reported on Wednesday that at least 30 managers were involved in VW’s emissions scandal. It came just a week after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exposed the fact that Volkswagen had installed software on vehicles to cheat emissions tests.

On September 24, Volkswagen announced a reorganization of its North American operations that put Vahland over country executives including Volkswagen’s USA chief, Michael Horn.

“In the last 25 years, Prof Vahland made a great contribution to the company”.

“We respect his decision and thank him for his exceptional performance”, Mueller was quoted as saying in the Skoda statement.

Vahland started with the Volkswagen Group in 1990, rising to become boss of VW in China in 2005.