Up To 80 Thousand Irish Cars Could Be Affected By VW Scandal

The statement came as investors awaited a decision from VW’s board after the market close on who will replace Martin Winterkorn as chief executive, amid reports that Porsche’s CEO Matthias Mueller is the front-runner.

Volkswagen is set to announce Porsche boss Matthias Mueller as its new chief executive. Once on the road, they would pump out up to 40 times the allowed level of nitrogen oxide.

“Motorsport was always an essential part of the Porsche brand”, Mueller said at the time.

Alongside Mueller’s appointment, the supervisory board also approved changes to the management structure – aimed, the company said, at scaling back complexity and strengthening brands and regions. He also spent many years at Audi. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said Volkswagen could face penalties of up to $18 billion.

The crisis deepened on Thursday as officials in Europe and the United States stepped up their investigations. German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt revealed a government commission investigating the scandal had been told by VW executives that “vehicles in Europe with 1.6 and 2.0 litre diesel engines were also affected by the manipulations”. The issue affects almost 500,000 units in the USA, but over 11 million worldwide. Now Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging it to act quickly to restore confidence in the Volkswagen name.

Mueller has spent most of his career at the Volkswagen group so he knows the inner workings of the company.

Half a dozen Greenpeace protesters were outside Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg plant on Friday, waving banners saying “No more lies!” in front of three diesel-engine VW Golf hatchbacks. The company had seen a big drop the day before on a report that one of its models exceeded European emissions limits.

The head of Volkswagen’s U.S. division apologized late 21 September 2015 for the German automaker’s use of software created to help its cars cheat USA emissions standards.

Regulators in Europe and the United States said on Friday they would take a harder line on enforcing compliance with pollution standards and would be less tolerant of gaps between real world emissions and laboratory results.

So far, no other carmaker has been found to have used the devices.

Separately, a group of at least 27 U.S. state attorneys general launched a multi-state investigation of Volkswagen’s representations to consumers about its diesel vehicles, and said it will send subpoenas to the automaker.

The severance package is triggered when Winterkorn’s contract is prematurely terminated.

“They have lost any contact with the real world, the customers who have been buying their cars in good faith”, he said, pointing to the firm’s 13-storey administrative building.

“But we haven’t got the ultimate answer because we haven’t got much information from Volkswagen”, she said. “This is what these types are driven by”, Hanold said.