Volkswagen names Porsche boss Matthias Mueller as chief executive

Embattled German automaker Volkswagen on Friday tapped an executive from Porsche as the group’s new chief – and pledged a major managerial shakeup as it tries to navigate the backlash over its attempt to get around US emissions regulations.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week revealed that Volkswagen had installed illegal software to falsify emission tests, allowing its diesel cars to produce up to 40 times more pollution than allowed.

Volkswagen announced in a news conference after its supervisory board meeting in Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday, that Mueller will follow Martin Winterkorn, who resigned this week as CEO of the company.

Regulators in Europe and Asia had already said they would investigate Volkswagen and other carmakers, and Volkswagen also faces criminal inquiries and lawsuits from cheated customers.

The world’s biggest carmaker, Volkswagen Group owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen brands.

“We expect a binding timetable as to when there will be a technical solution, and by when it can be implemented”, the minister said.

“We need to be very careful, and that counts more than speed”.

It was also not clear whether the software would have led to VW cheating on emissions tests outside the United States as well. The company said on Tuesday 11 million of its cars globally were fitted with engines that had shown a “noticeable deviation” in emission levels between testing and road use.

Former chief executive Martin Winterkorn accepted responsibility for the scandal and stepped down on Wednesday, but added that he and not done anything wrong.

“The process of clarification and transparency must continue”, Winterkorn said.

Alongside the appointment of Matthias Muller as CEO, the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen has announced an organisation-wide restructuring.

NPR’s Yuki Noguchi says the counter-measures the EPA says it will deploy would be created to detect so-called defeat devices that block accurate test results.