BREAKING: VW Chief Winterkorn Resigns After Emissions Scandal

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn announced his resignation after an emergency meeting held Wednesday. Five supervisory board members met with Winterkorn on Wednesday ahead of a regularly scheduled meeting Friday.

Winterkorn resigned five days after it was announced that 482,000 Volkswagens in the U.S. had illegal “defeat devices” that allowed them to cheat through emissions tests. It later came out that 11 million cars worldwide had the programming, and the company set aside more than $7 billion to pay for the ongoing scandal.

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. I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part.

The company had shed more than $26 billion in value over the last two days in a stock free-fall.

It wasn’t immediately clear who would replace Winterkorn as CEO.

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

More by Aaron Cole

Comments
Join the conversation
17 of 65 comments
  • BarryO BarryO on Sep 23, 2015

    Why is he smiling? He has destroyed a significant amount of wealth and trashed a company that has contributed, in a positive way regardless of how we might feel about their cars today, to personal mobility worldwide. Plus, he's pretty much personally finished.

    • See 4 previous
    • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Sep 24, 2015

      @Pig_Iron I'm sad I missed that time in America. I like boats.

  • TomLU86 TomLU86 on Sep 23, 2015

    As I look beyond the haze caused by the implosion at VW and the excess NOx and particulates, I can see past the rumours.... I see the talented and gifted Sergio, riding to the rescue on in his black sweater his black stallion... Yes, the man who fleeced GM and thus 'saved' Fiat, and then 'saved' Chrylser from demise, will now preside of the new VW-FCA! (It must be named that way--FCA-VW is too close to "F-cka-VW"). The "New AXIS", as it were. The prince, who was spurned by Princess Mary of GM, will now now take his new German bride, and be King of Autodom! And in so doing, when there are no more mergers in the offing to cover up the rot, we may witness the eventual demise of Fiat, Chrysler, and then VW will break away again, as Germany will not allow it to suffer the same fate as the first two. You read it here first...

  • Mchan1 Mchan1 on Sep 23, 2015

    "I accept responsibility..." RARE words spoken by... ANYONE! NO one in this day and age accepts responsibility for their actions unless 'forced' to do so. But no matter what one does, you get 'forced' to do work that someone else did and get the sh!t that was already present! Any "honest" person would be eaten alive in the corporate world, if not in life! Anyway... The guy doesn't necessarily 'need' to work anymore. He probably made enough money working for VW over the years and built up his retirement account. Others should also be found and fired for this matter!

    • See 2 previous
    • Ah_non_e_mouse Ah_non_e_mouse on Sep 23, 2015

      @Lorenzo VW has already admitted it to the EPA. It's over. http://www3.epa.gov/otaq/cert/documents/vw-nov-caa-09-18-15.pdf Page 4 - "Only then did VW admit it had designed and installed a defeat device..."

  • VelocityRed3 VelocityRed3 on Sep 23, 2015

    Well who didn't see this coming.

Next