Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen Group, resign today as the diesel emission-cheating crisis continued to grow unabated. He claimed he was unaware of any wrongdoing on his part in what he called a grave crisis.
“I am shocked by the events of the past few days. Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group., said Winterkorn. “As CEO I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the Supervisory Board to agree on terminating my function as CEO of the Volkswagen Group.”
So VW says that 11 million cars sold globally were equipped with the software that the Environmental Protection Agency said was used to beat emissions tests in the United States.; 500,000 in the United States, and estimates say ~10 million are in Europe.
There was at least one opposing voice to the Winterkorn resignation from Frost & Sullivan Principal Consultant, Martyn Briggs.
“The VW emissions scandal affair is unprecedented, owing to the apparent deceit involved to “cheat” the emissions testing. CEO Martin Winterkorn having to step down is not the right answer though, in my opinion, because the market could potentially rather gauge the result of this on his response, rather than on the fact that it happened in the first place,” he said.
This is a big story following the GM ignition switch recall story, which had the loss of lives! Lots of questions that need to be answered.