The Volkswagen emission scandal is expected to take more victims as more heads are expected to roll, including key personnel in Audi and Porsche. The company’s supervisory board is set to meet soon and take critical decisions in a bid to ride over the present crisis smoothly.
The Transportation and Environment organization, a European group, is finding fault with Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi also. While VW needs to show responsible action for its fallout, forcing Audi and Porsche to follow suit might disappoint and anger fans.
Rumors are rife that the VW Group’s head of sales and marketing, Christian Klinger, could also be asked to put in his papers soon. Others expected to take the hit include Mr. Hatz, Mr. Hackenberg and Mr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser.
Mr. Hatz managed motor development during 2007-2011, Mr. Hackenberg was head of brand development team in VW during 2007-2013 and in 2013 and Mr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser took over from Mr Hackenberg who is presently Volkswagen’s head of production.
Volkswagen CEO, Martin Winterkorn, submitted his resignation taking moral responsibility for the ‘irregularities’ discovered by inspectors from the US Environmental Protection Agency. The former CEO, however, denied being involved with any wrongdoing.
The EPA inspectors found ‘defeat devices’ or stealth software in VW’s 2L diesel engines which power its 2009-2015 model cars. These stealth software makes the vehicles appear ‘clean’ during emission tests, but not so in actual driving. The EPA claimed that 482, 000 vehicles had ‘defeat devices’ fit into them so as to circumvent regulatory requirements.
Following this accusation and in what seems to be an admission of guilt, Volkswagen has provisioned $7.3 billion dollars towards removing ‘defeat devices’ in 11 million Audi and VW cars across the world at a cost of $663 per car. In addition to the resignation of Mr. Winterkorn, more employees are likely to face consequences for the ‘dirty diesel’ scandal and marketing a revolutionary idea dubbed, ‘Clean Diesel engines made in Germany’.
The German authorities have also set up an inquiry commission to look into the supposed scam. The transport authority is running static and road tests on VW models and spot tests on cars of other manufacturers also in an effort to manage the looming issue.
