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2nd LD Writethru: Porsche Chairman appointed CEO of VW Group

Xinhua, September 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Chairman of Porsche AG on Friday became CEO of the Volkswagen Group, which is caught in an emission cheating scandal.

The Supervisory Board held a meeting in its headquarters in Wolfsburg on Tuesday and decided to appoint Matthias Mueller, 62, as CEO Volkswagen AG with immediate effect, said a statement of the company.

Mueller will continue to act as Chairman of Porsche AG until a successor has been found, it added. At a time when the scandal is still escalating, Mueller is expected to steer the car maker out of the current difficult situation.

"My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group -- by leaving no stone unturned and with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation," said Mueller.

"Under my leadership, Volkswagen will do everything it can to develop and implement the most stringent compliance and governance standards in our industry," added Mueller.

"If we manage to achieve that then the Volkswagen Group with its innovative strength, its strong brands and above all its competent and highly motivated team has the opportunity to emerge from this crisis stronger than before," said Mueller.

According to the statement, Mueller who is also a member of Board of Management of Volkswagen AG will act as the CEO VW Group until the end of February 2020.

The interim Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, Berthold Huber, expressed the urgency for Mueller to fulfill his responsibility in the new position "with full energy".

Mueller was made CEO of VW Group two days after his predecessor Martin Winterkorn quit. Winterkorn resigned prematurely as the company struggling to resolve the emissions cheating issue.

At the same time, the Supervisory Board announced that the structure of the company has been changed.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week revealed that Volkswagen had installed illegal software to falsify emission tests, allowing its diesel cars to produce up to 40 times more pollution than allowed.

The U.S. government has ordered Volkswagen to recall 482,000 VW and Audi cars produced since 2009, placing Germany's leading auto manufacturer on the hot seat.

The automaker admitted earlier this week that it manipulated emissions in some 11 million cars.

Winterkorn on Wednesday announced his resignation, saying he accepted responsibility for the "irregularities" that had been found in diesel engines. Endit