VW boss resigns over scandal
Shocked Winterkorn quits as ‘defeat device’ repercussions grow
VOLKSWAGEN chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned yesterday over a pollution cheating scandal that has sparked a US criminal investigation and worldwide legal action with unfathomable financial consequences for the motor giant.
“I am shocked by the events of the past few days. Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group,” Winterkorn said.
“Volkswagen needs a fresh start – also in terms of personnel. I am clearing the way for this . . . with my resignation.”
Following a two-day free fall that had axed 35%, or ß25- billion (R387.6-billion), off the company’s market value on Monday and Tuesday, the shares had bounced back yesterday, closing 5.19% higher at ß111.50 (R1 728) after Winterkorn’s announcement.
The haemorrhage on the markets may have abated but Volkswagen, the world’s largest motor manufacturer by sales in the first half of this year, faces a growing tangle of legal threats after it admitted on Tuesday that as many as 11 million of its diesel cars world- wide were equipped with software capable of fooling official pollution tests.
In addition to investigations from France to South Korea, public prosecutors in Germany also said they were examining information and eval- uating legal suits already filed against the company by a number of private individuals to decide whether to launch a full criminal inquiry against those responsible at VW.
A day after Winterkorn, 68, offered his “deepest apologies”, he said he accepted his responsibility for the irregularities that had been found.
But he insisted: “I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part.”
His widely predicted departure came after a meeting of the supervisory board’s sixmember steering committee in Wolfsburg.
A new chief executive was to be named tomorrow and other personnel changes were expected, the board said.
According to the US authorities, VW has admitted it equipped about 482 000 cars in the US with sophisticated software that covertly turns off pollution controls when the car is being driven.
It turns them on only when it detects that the vehicle is undergoing an emissions test.
With the “defeat device” deactivated, the car can spew pollutant gases into the air in amounts as much as 40 times higher than emissions standards, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.
The EPA, which announced the allegations on Friday along with California state authorities, is conducting an investigation that could lead to fines amounting to more than $18-billion (R249-billion).
The US Department of Justice had also launched a criminal inquiry, a source said.
The California Air Resources Board, too, is investigating VW’s pollution violations.
New York attorney-general Eric Schneiderman said he had launched his own probe and would work on it with prosecutors from other states across the United States.
VW has halted all diesel vehicles sales in the US during the investigations.