VW CEO Martin Winterkorn Resigns Amidst Diesel Scandal (Update)

Reports are coming in stating that VW CEO Martin Winterkorn will step down as CEO by the end of the week.

Update Sept. 23, 2015- Martin Winterkorn Officially submitted his letter of resignation.

It looks like pressure was too much for the 68-year-old CEO as sources inside VW say that the Martin Winterkorn will step down by the end of the week. Thanks to our friends over at the Economic Times who corroborated on the rumors earlier today (Sept. 22, 2015) it does indeed look like Volkswagen is in the middle of actively looking for a replacement, with rumors that Matthias Müeller will be stepping in. This doesn’t come as a surprise as the CEO was scheduled to leave in three days anyways. VW effectively stated earlier yesterday that they had cheated US Vehicles emissions tests and said that more than 11 million cars could possibly be affected worldwide. This announcement has prodded other countries to launch investigations of their own in which they could find similar information.

News of this scandal, which the internet has called Diesel-gate (or diesel-ghazzi) caused the price of their stock to fall 20 percent on Monday and another 20 percent as markets opened earlier today. Volkswagen has said that they will set aside more than $7.3 billion to deal with this fiasco.

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Earlier during the weekend, the EPA issued a statement accusing VW of installing a piece of software in their diesel equipped vehicles that only ran its suite of smog emission equipment only when testing and not in everyday driving. An independent test company through extensive testing proved that this was indeed true. VW then issued a statement before the launch of their 2016 VW Passat in North America that fessed up to the entire wrongdoing. We’ve posted what they said below.

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board (EPA and CARB) revealed their findings that while testing diesel cars of the Volkswagen Group they have detected manipulations that violate American environmental standards.The Board of Management at Volkswagen AG takes these findings very seriously. I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely establish all of the facts of this case. Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter.We do not and will not tolerate violations of any kind of our internal rules or of the law.The trust of our customers and the public is and continues to be our most important asset. We at Volkswagen will do everything that must be done in order to re-establish the trust that so many people have placed in us, and we will do everything necessary in order to reverse the damage this has caused. This matter has first priority for me, personally, and for our entire Board of Management."