Volkswagen CEO to lose his job over cheating scandal: Report
Volkswagen chief executive officer (CEO) would be reportedly relieved of his duties by the automaker's supervisory board following a recent scandal involving the company cheating in emission testing.
Martin Winterkorn, 68, who had successfully weathered a campaign by then supervisory board chief, Ferdinand Piech, to remove him earlier this year, has no longer the board's backing, AFP quoted a report by the daily Tagesspiegel as saying on Tuesday.
The board's six-member steering committee would meet Wednesday before a full 20-strong board meeting on Friday, which is supposed to officially decide Winterkorn's fate.
Winterkorn, who has served as CEO since 2007, would reportedly be replaced by Matthias Mueller, head of VW's luxury sports car arm, Porsche, the report added.
Winterkorn offered his "deepest apologies" on Tuesday for the pollution-cheating scandal, which is threatening to tarnish Germany's industrial reputation.
"I am infinitely sorry that we have disappointed people's trust. I offer my deepest apologies to our customers, the authorities and to the public at large for our misconduct," he said in a video statement.
The group, previously regarded as a paragon of German industry, revealed on Tuesday that 11 million diesel cars worldwide are equipped with devices that can cheat pollution tests. The revelation rapidly snowballed into a scandal, which has wiped a third off VW's market capitalization in just two days.
The trigger to the company's market woes came last Friday when it was revealed by the US Environmental Protection Agency that VW rigged nearly half a million cars to pass US smog tests.
The company told US regulators that it intentionally installed software programmed to switch engines to a cleaner mode during official emissions testing. The software then switches off again, enabling cars to drive more powerfully on the road while emitting as much as 40 times the legal pollution limit.
Winterkorn is a former protégé of Ferdinand Piech, 78, a grandson of VW's founder who served as CEO between 1993 and 2002 and then became its supervisory board chief.
Earlier this month and before the scandal was revealed, the six-member steering committee of the company had "voted unanimously" to propose to the 20-strong supervisory board that Winterkorn's contract be extended until December 31, 2018.
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