Days after Volkswagen admitted to having installed software on diesel vehicles that hid the fact that the cars violated emission standards, its CEO Martin Winterkorn has resigned from the company.
Days after Volkswagen admitted to having installed software on diesel vehicles that hid the fact that the cars violated emission standards, its CEO Martin Winterkorn has resigned from the company.
The German automaker has acknowledged building 11 million cars with the software, which deceived regulators into thinking the engines run cleaner than they actually do.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed Sept. 18 that Volkswagen had installed the software on VW and Audi diesel models from 2009 to 2015 to avoid failing pollution controls. The engines appeared to have run clean during testing but once they were sold and out driving, their pollution levels were significantly higher.
As a result of that deception, the cars may have released 1 million metric tons of pollution into the air per year, according to an analysis by The Guardian.
In resigning his position, Winterkorn said he was “stunned’’ that such widespread misconduct was possible in the Volkswagen Group and accepted responsibility for the “irregularities’’ found in its diesel engines.
During Winterkorn’s eight-year tenure, Volkswagen’s sales doubled and its profits nearly tripled. He was days away from having his contract extended through 2018 when the scandal broke.
“I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part,’’ he said in a statement.
News of Winterkorn’s departure lifted the company’s stock slightly after losing about one-third of its value since the crisis hit.
Headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany, Volkswagen said it would set aside about $7.3 billion to cover the costs of bringing the cars into compliance. The EPA has said the company could be subject of fines up to $18 billion for violating the Clean Air Act.
VW also faces investigations from European and Asian countries as well as Canada. Lawsuits already have been filed on behalf of customers who say they bought their vehicles under false pretenses.
The company has promised to determine whether any criminal wrongdoing played a role in the issue, and prosecutors in Germany have confirmed they are considering an investigation of Volkswagen employees.
Volkswagen has announced that its Porsche brand chief, Matthias Mueller, will become the company’s next CEO.
U.S. regulators first raised questions about Volkswagen’s emission in March 2014 and kept pushing for answers until the company finally acknowledged the software misstep. Volkswagen has yet to say who developed the software or who ordered it.
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