VW Mueller’s mess now, US CEO out

Volkswagen will name Matthias Mueller, the head of its Porsche sports car brand, as its chief executive as it tries to recover from a scandal over its rigging of US vehicleemissions tests, an informed source said on Thursday.

Mueller, 62, has been widely tipped to succeed Martin Winterkorn — who quit on Wednesday — when the German carmaker’s supervisory board meets on Friday, and will take responsibility for the biggest business crisis in Volkswagen’s 78year history.

Shares in the world’s largest carmaker by sales have plunged as much as 40 percent since Friday, when US regulators said it had admitted to fitting software on hundreds of thousands of diesel cars to detect when they were being tested, and alter the running of their engines to conceal their true emissions.

Also on Thursday, it was reported by multiple sources that Michael Horn, CEO of the German automaker’s US operations, is expected to exit the company.

His departure is expected to be announced Friday, when the company’s full board meets.

And the scandal over emissions jeopardized BMW as well on Thursday, af ter a German magazine reported that one of the luxury automaker’s diesel vehicles emitted 11 times the amount of nitrogen oxides acceptable in Europe.

The automaker’s shares tumbled about 5 percent Thursday following the magazine’s report that the International Council on Clean Transportation had discovered surprisingly high emissions on the BMW X3 crossover vehicle.

BMW issued a strong statement denying any wrongdoing, saying in an email to USA Today that it “does not manipulate or rig any emissions tests.”