Volkswagen Board Holding Emergency Meeting Ahead of Planned Friday Conference

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Five senior members of Volkswagen’s supervisory board are meeting Wednesday to discuss the future for the automaker after stock prices have plummeted and the company has publicly acknowledged it cheated worldwide emissions tests, the BBC reported.

The smaller Wednesday meeting is ahead of a regularly scheduled full board meeting Friday, where members are expected to discuss the contract extension to 2018 for CEO Martin Winterkorn. According to reports, Winterkorn’s future may be decided before Friday’s meeting.

Winterkorn issued a video statement in German on Tuesday apologizing for the scandal, but stopped short from resigning from the top VW post. The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported that Winterkorn would be replaced this week.

Winterkorn took over as CEO of Volkswagen in 2007, two years before the automaker included software in its diesel cars to run cleaner in “testing modes” than they do on the road. An independent investigation uncovered the cars polluted up to 40 times more nitrogen oxide than allowable by law.

Before the scandal broke, Winterkorn was noted to be fastidious about his cars; a video of the CEO taking minute measurements of a Hyundai in 2011 at the Frankfurt Auto Show has surged in popularity in the past week.

In two days following the scandal, Volkswagen has lost billions of its value in a stock free-fall. The stock inched up higher on Wednesday, but far from its five-day peak and more than 50 percent lower than its 52-week high.

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • APaGttH APaGttH on Sep 23, 2015

    Who can vee throw unda da Volkswagen microbus iz zee discussion today...

    • Bball40dtw Bball40dtw on Sep 23, 2015

      Looks like it will be Winterkorn and his double breasted suit.

  • APaGttH APaGttH on Sep 23, 2015

    Winterkorn is out. It is all over the news.

  • Marcus36 Marcus36 on Sep 23, 2015

    He is out, is only a matter of time before the announcement, you can expect other heads to roll in engineering, QC etc.

  • VolandoBajo VolandoBajo on Sep 24, 2015

    Yeah hey, long time B&B'ers...did you notice the photo credit for this story? A blast from the past. Mr. BS himself. As Yogi Berra (RIP) once said "you can see a lot just by looking."

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