Porsche Chairman Müller named new CEO of Volkswagen

Italian prosecutors have opened a preliminary probe, a judicial source said, and the executive European Commission urged all member states on Thursday to investigate how many cars use illegal “defeat” devices in emissions tests.

Hans Dieter Potsch, who began his career at BMW, is chief financial officer of both Volkswagen and the controlling Porsche SE.

Uwe Hueck, head of Porsche’s works committee, said Mueller “has the whiff of Porsche about him”.

Volkswagen was set to name its new chief executive later in the day, replacing Martin Winterkorn who quit over the global pollution cheating scandal engulfing the group. Voicing his disgust that such deception could be so commonplace within such a large company, Winterkorn stepped down from his post and prematurely closed a weird chapter in Volkswagen’s history. “Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group”.

Volkswagen has been embroiled in scandal since the EPA revealed last Friday that the company programmed vehicles to trick emissions testers into believing that its diesel cars released a much lower volume of nitrogen oxide than they actually do.

Das WeltAuto – the used-car division of manufacturer-owned Volkswagen Centre Singapore – meanwhile confirmed that it had sold at least three second-hand VW Passat 2.0TDIs.

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

That’ll be easier said than done.

Volkswagen offered few new details Friday on the fallout from the scandal. This week, VW’s stock has plummeted almost 40% since Friday’s close. “I am furious that the world’s leading vehicle company wilfully took steps that polluted our environment and deceived consumers”, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said in a statement yesterday. “Volkswagen has been, is and will always be my life”, Winterkorn continued. This is the age of transparency, and as secrets float to the surface corporate cheaters will continue to fall.

“The magnitude of this scandal did not leave another option”, said Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper of Winterkorn’s departure.

From the local museum to the main football stadium to the theme park down the road, everything in the German town of Wolfsburg has something of Volkswagen.

“We are inviting all member states to carry out investigations at the national level”, European Commission spokeswoman Lucia Caudet said in Brussels on Thursday. Volkswagen engineers will now be tasked with finding a fix for the cars affected.

The company faces fines and class action lawsuits that could cost it billions. In preparation, VW has dog-eared $7.3 billion towards making the situation right.

Reps for Volkswagen did not immediately respond to our request for comment. This wasn’t a test of how well their cars handle, how fast they go from zero to 60, or how well they protect you in a crash.

“Most important is that this is never allowed to happen again at Volkswagen”, he told reporters.